What do you Suppose a Friend is?
by Black Tarantula
Summary: Ellen's scheme should've been Viola's end, but as Ellen fled the house to destroy the roses, a stranger in red appeared and offered the dying Viola a choice. Five years later, Viola has become become one of Hellsing's finest. When her first mission alone takes her back to where it all started, how will she handle it? Rated M for violence and ****-mothering vampires...and witches.
1. Chapter 0-Prologue

**The prologue takes place one night after the events of the true ending to Witch's House. The rest is set five years in the future. Note that I do not own Witch's House or Hellsing Ultimate. Please support both the game and the series respectively, trust me, you won't regret it. Warning: The story contains major spoilers for Witch's House and Hellsing Ultimate.**

Prologue:

The girl awoke with a gasp on a small twin bed in a dimly lit stone chamber. She sat bolt upright and looked around feverishly as the white covers slid off of her and partially onto the floor. She saw the room, and the little lamp that sat on a nightstand next to her bed, and then a sudden realization hit her.

"My eyes! I can see!" She thought aloud. She reached up and patted her face, feeling it up and down and all around. Then she examined the palms of her hands. _No blood?_ She asked herself, allowing herself a sigh of relief. _Was that whole experience just a dream?_ She looked at her hands more closely. They seemed smaller than she remembered. Her brow furrowed a bit. That was strange, but whatever. She grabbed the covers and threw them off completely, and her eyes widened and she let out a gasp. Her legs! They were back! She wiggled her toes and flexed them. They felt real enough. Then she noticed something else. Her body no longer screamed in agony. Her throat no longer burned from the "medicine" she had taken. It was all gone. The blood, the pain, the betrayal, the sickness. They were all figments of her imagination or a dream. She smiled and couldn't help but let out an almost manic laugh of sheer and utter joy.

"It was all a dream!" She shouted, allowing herself to fall back into the soft pillow, absolutely giddy with the simplicity of the truth. "YES! HELL YES! I'm still me! Oh, legs and feet, I never thought I'd be so happy to see you in my life! Heh, never thought I'd be so happy to see, period." Then she heard a chuckle, and sat up again.

"Not quite, my dear," came a low and powerful voice that felt like it reverberated through her soul. She looked down toward the edge of her bed and saw a very tall figure standing there looking down at her through a pair of red-orange-lensed spectacles. He wore a very wide-brimmed crimson fedora on top of a head of jet black wild hair that ran down to his shoulders. His hair ever so slightly touched the floor-length crimson duster-coat he had on over a charcoal suit underneath it. He stepped to the right of her bed and walked alongside it until he was looking down at her. A little smile curled the lips on his pale face. He held out a small blue hand-mirror towards her with hands clad in white gloves with a red upside-down pentagram drawn on each. "Take another look." The way he said it, the words seemed to glide off the tip of his tongue to be carried to her ears by the cadence and tone of a voice that was as mysterious and dark as it was seductive and mesmerizing. He gestured to the mirror as the girl shrunk back a bit in fear. She swore she had heard his voice before? She thought he was in her dream, but it was all sort of a blur right now.

"Who-" she started.

"Look," he repeated, holding out the mirror even closer. She was hesitant, but something about the way he said even that one word made her think that it was best not to ask too many questions. She reached out and took the mirror from him and held it up in front of her. She let out a shriek and dropped the mirror and almost leapt out of bed.

"No!" She breathed in shock. She again looked at her hands. Then she looked over the rest of her body and her clothes. They were all wrong. Her hands were indeed smaller, as were her legs and feet. Not only were they smaller than they used to be, but they looked like they belonged to someone much younger than she. Her skin was also paler than she recalled. She wore a red and white dress that ended in a long flowing red skirt, all of which was covered in various reddish-brown stains and smears. Those weren't her clothes per-say, but she recognized them only too well. Seeing them, her hands, her body, that face in the mirror with the beautiful long violet hair with a red bow and golden eyes filled her with a sickening shock. "No way! This isn't happening! The switch with her never happened! It was a dream!... Wasn't it?"

"You already know the answer to that," said the tall man cooly. "Don't try to deny the truth. Especially if it's a horrible truth."

The girl looked up at the man and then down at the mirror and picked it up again. She hesitantly gazed into it, looking at it through eyes that weren't hers at the face that wasn't originally hers either. She knew that face. The face of her "friend." There was different about it from the last time she had seen it besides the fact that it was not practically melting away and bloodied by illness. She opened her mouth, and let out an: "Eek!" She almost dropped the mirror again. Her mouth was no longer bleeding, and her teeth were perfectly white. What freaked her out, was her canine teeth. They were longer and far more pointed than she remembered. In fact, they were longer and pointier than a regular person's. She reached up and gently touched one with her finger. She felt a prick of pain as the tooth punctured her skin as easily as a knife through butter.

"Heh," snickered the man. "Tell me kid, how does it feel to be a vampire?"

"A what?" She asked almost laughing. She wasn't sure if he was serious or joking. She didn't believe it either way, whether she had fangs or not. "Vampire? What are you talking about?" The man smiled, this time exposing his teeth, and her jaw dropped. He had canines just like hers!

"You chose this path when we met inside that witch's house," he answered flatly. "You chose that over dying. Over having your soul devoured by a demon and condemned to an eternity wandering through the pits of Hell. I drank your blood and brought what was left of that body here while you 'slept.'" No doubt noting her confusion, he continued. "I guess you don't quite recall all of it yet. That's to be expected after an ordeal like yours. It will come to you soon enough."

"A vampire?" She asked again, still totally lost. The muddled images and memories of what happened to her raced through her mind, but they were still disorganized and in pieces. She thought about what he had just told her and decided to take a chance and trust him.

"It's a lot to take in, I know," he said. "However, I'm afraid we'll have to continue this conversation later. At the moment my orders are to escort you upstairs so that my master and I can de-brief you."

"De-brief? Hold on a sec, where are we anyway?"

"We're at the headquarters of the Hellsing Organization. You'll be working with us from now on. That's all you need to know, for now. Hurry and get on your feet, Sir Integra Hellsing isn't known for her patience. We need to know as much as we can about that witch and what happened between you two. The questions should help jog your memory. After that you're free to get cleaned up and take some time to let this sink in. Now, stop gawking at me and get moving, my little Draculina!" With that he turned and walked quickly out of the room into a darkened hallway. She did as she was told, noting that this body was much more nimble and sturdy than she recalled. She hurried out of the room and followed along behind the man as his red duster billowed out behind him a bit.

"Sorry, but I've got one last question," she began, hoping not to agitate him. "Who are you anyway?"

"Hm?" He asked as he stopped in his tracks. He slowly turned to face her, peering down at her long purple hair and golden eyes through his glasses. "Oh, that's right! I was so rushed when we met that I didn't have a chance to properly introduce myself. You may call me...Alucard."

"Alucard," she repeated with a nod. "My name's Viola."

"Well then, Viola," Alucard said with a smile before turning away and continuing down the hall. "If you'd be so kind as to continue following me, my master and I will help you to get acquainted with your new accommodations and your new life...or rather un-life."

Viola cocked her head, wondering what he meant by all that. She had all sorts of questions, and the answers to those questions were waiting for her. All she had to do was follow this Alucard guy...


	2. Chapter I-The Solo Mission

**Note: Most of the events in this piece revolve around the Hellsing Ultimate storyline to an extent. That being said, those of you who didn't like the true ending of Witch's House need not get worked up. The story of Ellen, Viola, and the Black Cat will play a heavy role as well. The name and exact geographic location of the town where Viola and her father lived is never stated in-game, so a fictional name and location have been devised. The location of this town is set for the purposes of this story somewhere in England. Rated M for extreme gore and violence in later chapters.**

Chapter I-The Solo Mission

She dove forward and rolled to the side to evade an unseen force as it struck the spot where she had just been standing. A slight twang echoed through the room as she dashed forward towards her target, a tall and stately man dressed in a white collared dress shirt with a blue-gray vest and grey dressed pants. His black hair was tied back in a ponytail and he had a monocle over his left eye. He had a cool and confident smile on his face as he faced down the girl with his right arm outstretched and his fingers moving in various directions as though he were conducting a marionette show. If one were to look up the word "classy" in a dictionary, they would be likely to find a picture of this man in the space where the definition was supposed to be. He stood about eighty feet across from her in a wide-open room with padding on the floor, ceiling, and walls. His smile disappeared as he saw her coming towards him and with a flick of his wrist, he stopped the girl in her tracks before she could get within striking distance. If she had stopped even a fraction of a second later, he almost certainly would have caught her.

"My, my. Getting a bit ambitious aren't we, Miss Viola?" he asked with a very suave British accent. She gave no response and took a step back, but the determination in her blood-red eyes was obvious. Some of her purple bangs settled directly in front of her face and she had to blow them out of her field of vision just as he slashed at her with the wires again, and she watched in astonishment as those rogue strands of her hair fell away from her face to the ground. She was not giving up that easily though. He pointed his fingers upward and then swung his arm down at her and as he did, light hit the surface of his monomolecular razor wires as they whisked through the air towards her. This time, she stepped to the side quickly but before she could do anything further he brought out his left hand from behind him in a sweeping motion as he moved his other hand out of the way. She did a backflip over them and so began a dance across the room. She dodged and evaded the razor wire as best she could but she couldn't get anywhere near her target. All he did was flick a finger or move his hand and she'd have to jump back again. He managed to hit her several times as their duel progressed, but she couldn't lay a scratch on him.

Those seemingly invisible wires could either ensnare or slice almost anything they hit to shreds. They helped him to more than compensate for not having the strength, speed, reflexes, or senses of a vampire. He could cause lethal damage with even the tiniest movement of his fingers or hands. For Viola, it was easy to see why people here in Hellsing sometimes called him: "The Angel of Death." _He's been griping about being old and he's still kicking every square inch of my ass,_ she thought with an inward laugh. She leapt backward again, this time quickly pivoting on one foot when she landed to move her body such that her shoulder was facing her enemy as the streams of wires raced past on both sides of her. She searched for the glint of light off their reflective surfaces. That was the key to dodging them. She would have run towards him again, but she saw the tell-tale shine coming her way. He was trying to capture her. He was trying to box her in, but as the wires circled around each other towards her like snakes tightening their deadly embrace she jumped up to the ceiling just before they caught her. She flipped through the air so that her feet touched the ceiling and she was once more staring into the man's wizened blue eyes for a split second before she used the momentum to launch herself straight at him. Just in time too, almost immediately after she heard the sound of fabric tearing behind her. He wasn't letting her get away that easily. She landed only ten feet from him and then rushed her target again. Now she had him for sure, she saw his eyes widened only every so slightly as surprise flickered across his face. She closed the distance between them with inhuman speed faster than a person could blink, but the left hook she sent at him never landed. Her whole body appeared frozen in place only centimeters away from him. He stood there with his hands poised right at her. He caught her after all, albeit just barely.

"Most impressive," he said with a smile as he removed the wires from her and they fell to the floor. "I think it's fair to say that I'm going to have to start taking you much more seriously from now on. You very nearly had me there."

"Thank you, Walter," Viola replied as she relaxed her fighting stance as well. "I learned from the best."

"And, if I may say so, you have learned remarkably well. You're turning into quite the rising star. Pretty soon, I'm afraid this old body of mine won't be able to keep up."

"Don't say that," she laughed. "You make getting old seem like a bad thing. Besides, you're still plenty strong and energetic."

"You sound a bit like Alucard," Walter chuckled. "It's rather amazing how much like him you've become in some ways, but at the same time you're still as kind and caring as the day he brought you here. It was five years ago, but it feels like only yesterday."

"I know, right?" Viola agreed, crossing her arms behind her purple hair as they walked toward the door that led out of the training room. "It felt like forever while it was all going on because it was like one new training regimen or mission after another. Now that I think about it, it's been one hell of a ride. I mean that in a good way."

"I'm glad you've taken to this lifestyle with such enthusiasm," he said. Walter reached for the door to open it for her like the gentleman he was, but before he grabbed the door knob the ringing of a nearby telephone made him stop. Viola had to resist the urge to run over and get it herself on principle. She liked to help however she could, which on more than one occasion had irritated the stately butler in the past. He immediately made his way over to it and clicked the button to put it on speaker as he picked it up.

"Hello, Walter," came a charismatic and strong female voice over the speaker. "I trust Viola's evening training session goes well?"

"Indeed, Sir Integra," he replied cordially. "She very nearly landed a blow to my jaw this time. If we'd been fighting seriously, I daresay she would give me quite a run for my money. Then again, I'd expect nothing less now that she's become a proper vampire."

"I see," Integra answered, almost sounding surprised. "That sounds very interesting, but I'm afraid you're going to have to wrap it up. I need you both to come to my office, now."

"We'll be on our way immediately sir," said Walter. "Miss Viola and I were just about finished anyway." With that the phone clicked off as Integra hung up the line. Then he turned toward her and stated: "We'd best be off, Miss Viola."

"Mhm," she nodded. "I wonder where Alucard and I will be going tonight? I tell ya Walter, that's one of the things I love about this job. Traveling all over the world."

"Of course ma'am," he smiled as they left the room. "I agree completely. Traveling the world is one of life's true pleasures."

With that they made their way through the immaculate hallways, corridors, and stairways of the Hellsing Estate until they arrived in Integra's office. Viola noted the small gold plaque on her boss's desk. It read: Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing in perfectly sized and designed black cursive lettering. She always loved that little sign. Maybe when she had made a name for herself she could get something like that to put on the door of her room. One day perhaps. She then looked at the woman sitting behind the desk in a tall leather chair. She had long blonde hair and creamy brown skin. Her blue eyes looked like they could pierce right through someone, but they had a subtle warmth to them. As always, she wore a navy blue blazer over her white button-up shirt and navy blue trousers. Rounding off her outfit was a red bowtie held in place by a slide with a silvery crucifix on the front of it. This was the head of Hellsing. This was Integra.

"Walter, Viola," she said, rising slowly from her chair. Walter immediately stepped to her side and lit the cigar she held in her hand. She took a hit from it as she sat back down. "You got up here very quickly and efficiently, good. Now that you're here, we just need Alucard. Then we can begin." She furrowed her brow as she met Viola's gaze and scanned the young vampire with meticulous scrutiny. She smiled slightly. "It's been a while since I've seen you in that form," She finally said. "Feeling nostalgic are we?"

"Yes sir," Viola answered sheepishly. She began to run her fingers through her long purple hair near her ear. She made curls with her finger as she often did out of habit whenever she was a bit embarrassed.

"I like the bow in your hair," Integra stated cooly. "It's a nice touch." Viola's current physical shape was that of a seven year old girl clad in a red and white dress with long purple hair that ran halfway down her back and a crimson bow in back of her hair. She normally would choose not to have the bow, but for whatever reason she felt like putting it on. As always, her eyes remained crimson red regardless of what face she had on.

"Thank you, sir," Viola said with a smile. "So, where is Alucard anyway?"

"Right behind you," Integra replied quickly. She raised her index finger and pointed to the wall behind the purple haired female just as the face and hands of Hellsing's deadliest monster began to phase through it followed by the rest of his body.

Viola turned with a start, growing slightly annoyed. No matter how many times he did that, he still got her every time. It wasn't fair that he could mask his scent and his presence whenever he wanted to.

"My apologies, Master," Alucard said as he stepped into the room. "I was sluggish waking up."

"It's no matter," said Integra. "Now then, down to business." She grabbed two manilla folders off her desk and opened the first one. "Alucard, we have a very serious situation in the town of Cheddar. A roaming priest appeared there last night and began drinking the blood of every single person he encountered, filling the local church with his ghouls. In their ignorance, the local police foolishly attempted to contain this themselves and in doing so lost well over half of their forces in one day as they tried to storm the church. Now that dusk has fallen and the ghouls can roam freely again, the police finally called the military and they have turned this over to us. Your task is simple: find this false priest and kill him by whatever means you see fit. Show no mercy, Alucard. This man is devouring our citizens and mocking our Church!"

"Understood, my Master," Alucard nodded.

"Then we'll depart for Cheddar as soon as we finish the matter at hand," said Integra.

"You're coming with me?" Asked Alucard. "I'm fully capable of handling this one myself." Viola was very surprised. She went with Alucard on every mission. Did Integra and Alucard not intend to send her with him this time? Had she done something wrong? She wondered what it could have been.

"This case is now very sensitive due to the number of civilian and police casualties," Integra continued. "It'd be best if I went along to deal with the local authorities and what's left of Cheddar's town government hopefully before they send more good officers to their ends. I'll leave the vampire priest and the ghouls to you."

"Fair enough," responded Alucard as he took the mission file from Integra and turned to leave the room. At this point there was no way Viola was letting them leave without some sort of explanation.

"Um, what about me?" She asked, doing her best to sound polite and calm in spite of her confusion.

"Stop making a fuss!" Alucard replied tersely, turning to face his protege. "We have something special in mind for you. Don't we Integra?"

_Special?_ Viola thought. What could that mean?

"Yes," Integra agreed. "I was just getting to that." Then she looked back at Viola. "Viola, it's been five years since you came to this facility. During that time you've become one of our finest operatives. You're not a fledgling vampire anymore nor have you been for two years now. We think it's time for you to get an assignment of your own."

Viola's eyes lit up and she grinned from ear to ear. Or at least, that's what she wanted to do anyway. She wanted to jump for joy. She had been waiting for this for a long time, and now it was here. But, she had learned very early on in her days working for Hellsing that it was important to maintain a calm composure. She managed to keep her lips curled only into a little smile, and refrained from screaming in happiness.

"I'm honored, thank you for this opportunity," she said as cooly as she possibly could. "So, what is it that you want me to do?"

"There's another vampire that's become a serious problem," Integra began. "It's been showing in small towns across the countryside and causing numerous deaths and then just vanishing off the face of the Earth. It's hit six such locations so far. We've been trying to stop it for nearly two weeks now, but every time we arrive on the scene it simply disappears before we can find it. We've decided to try a new tactic and head it off. Based on the locations and times of each town being attacked, we believe we know its next target. You're being deployed to Nornville wh-"

"My hometown?!" Viola cut in suddenly. She hadn't been expecting that. Of all the places she thought of, that had not been one of them. Why would they send her back home? She had no desire to return there after everything that had happened to her. "Why am-?"

Walter cleared his throat and stared sharply at Viola. Viola met his gaze and nodded ever so slightly before falling silent. She knew what that meant. She needed to pull the reigns a bit more tightly on her impulse to jump to conclusions.

"Sorry," she said, bowing her head.

"As I was saying," Integra started again. "You'll be heading to Nornville where you will meet up with two more of our agents. Once you have done so, you will be escorted to a safe house we've established in the forest near the outskirts of town. The exact coordinates of the safe house are inside this folder but I'm fairly sure you can already guess where it is. Once you're there, and you have had time to properly get situated, you will begin a nightly sweep of the town and the surrounding forest until the vampire appears and destroy it. Do you understand your orders, Viola?"

"They're perfectly clear, sir," she said.

"Then what's the problem?" Integra asked. "Does it have something to do with the incident involving the witch five years ago?"

"Yes. I'm still...troubled by that whole experience." She remembered their promise. For one day, just one day they would switch bodies so the terminally ill witch could know what it was like to be healthy and free of pain. She trusted that Ellen would keep her word. Then, Ellen betrayed that trust and left her to die in agony after mutilating herself even more than she already was. She tried to stop Ellen with Ellen's own magic, but in the end it wasn't enough. She recalled Ellen's maniacal laughter in her own voice as she declared her victory over her "friend." Then she heard her own father call her a monster before shooting her, and leaving her for dead in that forest. Decaying, dying, alone, and doomed to be devoured by a demon and cast into the bowels of Hell for eternity, she thought that would be the end for her. She had never been happier to be wrong at any point in her existence. Becoming a vampire had purged all of Ellen's memories from this body, but now it was her own that haunted her.

"Still having those dreams?" Integra queried. Viola nodded. They didn't come every single moment she slept, but they always hung over her like a dark cloud since that fateful day. She didn't mention that they were getting more frequent lately. "Then, I think that is reason enough for you to go back to Nornville. You can't let this continue to get to you, Viola. You have to put it behind you and bury it there. Call it cliche, but I think seeing your hometown again would do you some good. Which, is why I am encouraging you to stay a few days in the safe house even after you've dealt with the vampire. I'm not making that an order, but I would strongly recommend it."

"Uh..." Viola trailed off. She looked over at Alucard for an answer or some kind of help, even though she already knew what he was going to say.

"Don't be a coward," said the tall vampire, no doubt seeing the conflict in her eyes. "Face your human fears and crush them into dust." _Why do I even bother?_ She asked herself. She had no choice about going to Nornville. She had her orders, and as an agent of Hellsing, she was duty bound to carry them out. She had no desire whatsoever to stay there after she killed the vampire, but they seemed to think it was for the best, and she trusted their judgement over hers. It wouldn't cost her anything to try and spend some time there.

"Alright," Viola sighed. "I'll spend a few days there. How long should I expect to be there exactly?"

"Depends," Integra replied. "I would just assume the rest of the week until Sunday evening, unless another assignment comes up."

"Alright, so that's six days counting tonight," Viola said. She felt like she could handle that. It was more than likely that there wouldn't be another assignment. At least, not one important enough to call her away.

"Indeed," Integra said, smiling dryly. "I think you've made a wise choice, Viola. Oh! There couple of things you should be aware of while you're there. You're their on a mission until the vampire has been destroyed. At that point you're just there to spend some time. Take it easy and try to relax. But, if possible keep interaction with the townspeople to a minimum save the local authorities to brief them on the situation and coordinate your efforts against the vampire."

"Understood," Viola said. "When you say locals, sir, do you specifically mean my father?"

Integra nodded. "The town in general, but in particular, your father yes. You are not to speak with him unless you feel that for whatever reason your mission warrants it. For obvious reasons, if you do have to talk you are not to tell him about the Hellsing Organization, or the truth about what really happened five years ago. He must believe you're a total stranger."

"Got it, sir." That was pretty obvious. Not that her father would believe any of that anyway. "I assume the same rule applies to Ellen?"

"Yes and no. I don't want you to communicate with Ellen or directly interact with her unless, again, you have to save her life. That being said, we've been using some of the surveillance equipment at the safe house to keep tabs on her during the five years she's been living in your original body. As you know, this is a situation unlike anything we've ever seen or heard of before, and we want to be sure that her powers never resurface. If you get the chance, review the findings and the tapes, and write a report for her case file."

"Spy on Ellen?" Viola asked. That was an unusual request. As far as she knew, Hellsing no longer considered Ellen to be of any interest at all. It seemed she was wrong. She grinned mischievously. "I think I can do that, hehehe."

"Remember that the Round Table Conference has decided that Ellen is no longer designated a supernatural threat. Unless you find reasonable evidence that suggests she is again a witch or another dark entity, you're not to lay a hand on her. Is that understood? Your personal feelings cannot get in the way of your duty to Hellsing, Queen and Country?"

"Yes, sir," Viola said slowly. "Revenge is a child's game. A human concept. Don't get me wrong, I never have or ever will forgive her for what she did, but I won't let any of that get in my way. I won't harm Ellen, not unless you tell me to, master."

"Well said, Viola," Alucard said with a smile. Any praise from Alucard was very high praise indeed. Not to mention it was very rare.

"Then I think everything's settled," said Integra. "Alucard, head to the motor court. I'll join you shortly once I have all my effects. Walter, please escort Viola to the heliport and see her off." With that, Alucard vanished back through the wall and Integra got out of her chair and handed Viola her mission file and left.

"Oh!" Exclaimed Walter suddenly. "I almost forgot. Miss Viola, I have something special to show you." With that he reached behind Integra's desk and pulled out a rather large black leather briefcase with the Hellsing seal on the front and placed it on the desk. He clicked it open, and with a flourish presented her with a gun. A two foot long, jet black shotgun styled after something from an Old West Cowboy film. It was elegant and without a doubt incredibly lethal. The words: _Hellsing ARM 921 Jinshu Long_ were engraved in silver cursive lettering on the right side of the barrel. Next to that in smaller letters was the phrase: _Made in England_.

"Wow!" Gasped Viola in excitement as she examined the weapon. Living with her father, she had been brought up around guns. In fact, he had a small collection of various hunting rifles and shotguns. He would have been so jealous to see the toys she got to play with at Hellsing. These babies made his shotgun look like a pitiful nerf gun.

"The 921 Jinshu Long is a custom 19.7 millimeter 10-gauge anti-freak pump shotgun," began Walter. Viola wondered if he rehearsed these speeches beforehand or if he just ran the stats off the top of his head. Either way, she loved hearing it. "Forty-eight centimeters long, eighteen kilograms in weight, seven-shell chamber, and an improved cylinder bore. Jinshu Long is Chinese for steel dragon, by-the-way."

"Oh, very nice," cooed Viola as she continued to look it over. "And the ammo?"

"The Jinshu has two different kinds of ammunition, depending on the situation. The first are 19.7 millimeter shot shells, each carrying twenty-six blessed silver shards or pellets. The shells are much longer which is why there is only room for seven at a time. The second variety are a specially made ammunition called Dragon's Breath. Normally designed for a twelve-gauge, these rounds contain specialized magnesium pellets that ignite when the gun is fired, producing a jet of white hot fire and molten metal shards that has an effective range of 30 meters or so. These are custom-made Dragon's Breath rounds, specifically intended for the Jinshu. These are larger, and have more silver pellets than magnesium ones. This means the pyrotechnic display will be less awing, but the range and power will be increased and there is a good chance of igniting who or whatever takes a hit in addition to blowing them to pieces."

"You've outdone yourself this time Walter!" Viola cried, now at this point unable to contain her joy and enthusiasm. "I could kiss you, but that would be weird."

"I appreciate your restraint, Miss Viola. Since your modified P90 was damaged in your last mission, I decided I'd let you take this for a test run on your mission as well." He then reached into the briefcase and pulled out a larger, more modern looking weapon. It looked sort of like a black M-16, but with a much bulkier barrel without the ridges on it and a wider magazine. It was much heavier too. Like the Jinshu, it had the usual Hellsing ARM logo engraved on the right side of the barrel in silver. Viola felt like a little kid on Christmas Day that actually got everything he or she wanted and then some. She was ecstatic.

"This is the NV-89, a custom anti-freak assault rifle. One meter long, 20 kilograms in weight, and twenty-four rounds per magazine. The NV-89 is similar to an M-16, but with far more firepower than a human could effectively wield. This one also comes with three adjustable settings: semi-automatic, three-round burst fire, and of course, fully automatic."

"Rounds?"

"8.2x55 millimeter explosive shells with pure blessed silver casings and mercury tips."

"Um, wow! Damn Walter, thank you! I think I'm feeling a little light-headed." She wanted to hug him for such a gift. Up till now she'd been using the same modified guns as the rest of Hellsing's human staff. She'd been hoping to get her own custom gun like Alucard's 454 Casull, but she never imagined she'd get two of them! Now she was going to hook the butler up with something nice for the holidays. She had no idea what, but it was going to be something amazing after this. She owed him too much now to just let it go. Walter had watched over her ever since she had arrived at Hellsing, and in some ways she thought of him as a secondary father figure. He was always looking out for everyone else. She found it hard to believe the stories Alucard had told her about how he swore like a sailor and loved to slice enemies to bits when he was a child.

"I'm pleased that you're pleased Miss Viola," he said, bowing cordially. "I've also taken the liberty of having your coffin, some refrigerated blood, and some extra ammunition cases prepared for transport. Now, we should make for the heliport as soon as you're ready."

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be," Viola sighed, remembering where it was that she was going and all the pain that place held for her.

"In that case, might I suggest that you change your shape again to something less...recognizable to certain individuals?"

"Huh? Oh right! My bad, I forgot." With that her body grew taller, more toned, and more developed. Her straight violet hair receded somewhat and became a bit more wavy, but still went almost a third of the way down her back. Her frontal bangs became shorter, but more wild and messy. Some of the hair that hung loose on either side of her head over her ears began to bunch up into two portions and then wrapped around itself, forming lavender braids that wove down well past her collarbone with a small red tie at the end of them. Her attire changed in the blink of an eye from a red and white dress to a sleeveless, jet-black version of the Hellsing uniform that fitted her slim yet curvaceous body well. The Hellsing badge on her chest was scarlet red and stuck out from the rest of the black attire. She also sported a black tighter version of the uniform's pants and a pair of black combat boots. On each of her hands was a black, fingerless leather glove with a pentagram engraved in dark red on the back. On her left arm was a smaller version of the bow she had been wearing in her hair as her "true" self. It was pinned to a circular red piece of elastic fabric on her upper arm halfway between her shoulder and her elbow. Over all of that was a form-fitting black trench coat that came down to her ankles with brass buttons and a dark red velvet interior. Her pale face had many of the same features as it did in her seven-year old appearance, but now they were less like those of a child and more like those of a young adult. To call her drop-dead gorgeous would almost be an understatement. Since becoming a true vampire and learning to shape-shift, this was her most common appearance. Essentially, it was what she believed Ellen's body would have grown-up to look like as an eighteen year old, save the hairstyle which was closer to that of her original body. She almost never assumed the child version anymore except to spar with Walter as its small size made it easier to evade his razor wires. She could hardly stand looking in a mirror and seeing the true face of Ellen staring back. Today was a rare exception as she was feeling very nostalgic when she had woken up this evening, but she was glad to change out of it nonetheless.

"Much better, Miss Viola," said Walter turning to leave.

"It feels good to be back in this adorable form," Viola stated casually as she gathered her new weapons and followed behind Walter. As they headed towards the heliport, where her ride awaited her, she thought again about returning home. On the one hand, she missed the small town and simple lifestyle with her friends and her father. She wondered how all of them were doing. But, there was the lingering cloud that haunted every dark corner of her mind: Ellen the witch, and the living nightmare she had gone through because of her betrayal that day. Right now Ellen was walking around somewhere in Nornville in her body, and she wasn't sure she could stand the thought of that. She decided not to think of it for the moment, and focus on the bright side of things. Her own assignment, going home even in only a limited sense, there were many reasons to be happy about it. _Lay out the welcome mats and get a parade, Nornville. I'm coming home,_ she thought as she stepped onto the helicopter.


	3. Chapter II-The Simple Life

Chapter II - The Simple Life

Ellen road along the streets of Nornville on her bicycle at a leisurely pace as she made her way home. _When am I going to get my own car?_ she thought as she looked up at the evening sky. Sharing a car between herself and her "father" forced her to ride a bike to almost every occasion and she was starting to get a bit sick of it. She was on her way back from another group tutoring session at school, just like every one she'd been to the previous week. Finals were next week, so the review sometimes helped. More often than not it was just plain aggravating and it felt like a waste of her time. She knew a couple of kids that were more intelligent than she, but none of them had the knowledge she had. Countless years reading and re-reading gave her a base of information that so far as she knew exceeded that of any other living person on Earth. Certainly more than any of those so called "valedictorian students" or these teachers and their so called "credentials." Admittedly what she lacked was any of the practical experience with using what she knew in the real world. She didn't have that exposure cooped up in her house in the woods. For that reason, she found some of this education business to be quite useful. History of any kind and English came so easily to her that in most cases she had no need to study. She didn't have as much trouble with math and science in general as she expected since she had the knowledge left behind by her vessel's former owner to call upon and expand. It was amazing how far the human race had come in general during the time she had spent in that house. People could now travel across continents in a matter of hours, talk to someone on the other side of world with a device small enough to fit comfortably inside a pocket, and get information about the world from the comfort of their own homes. In her day, people considered traveling to the next village in a day to be an arduous trip. Oh brave new world indeed! At first, even with the memories of her body's previous inhabitant, she was shocked at how far behind she was in her house compared to the rest of the world by this point.

As she rode on, a couple of guys driving a convertible something-or-other car, she didn't know or care what it was, whistled at her as they drove past.

"Hey baby!" They shouted among other comments as they raced on by.

"Go fly a kite, assholes!" She yelled after them. _Wait, fly a kite? Did I really just say that?_ She thought as she face-palmed before making a quick right turn down a side-street. _My comebacks are still way out-of-date. _If she still had her powers they would all have found themselves with a sudden and mysterious stomach illness that would make their lives hell for the rest of the week. Then again, at least they weren't calling her a monster or pointing and laughing at her because of a sickness that made her look like a bloody, bandaged mess. They were being jerks, there was no question about it. But, at least they were trying to be close to her...sort of. She wanted no association with people like that, but she found some small pleasure in the thought that they didn't run from her at first sight anymore. Now that she had this body, no one ran away anymore. She was glad to have this hot, firm, and fit body of hers. It made adjusting to the social scene of high school much easier.

No one tried to call her "freak" or "sick-girl." No one tried to hunt her down for being a "murderous demonic whore." Now that she had this body, everything was as it should be. She was just another girl, one of the people at long last. She had friends, a father that loved her, and she was free. Free of her illness, free of that house, and she even felt like she was free from death itself in spite of the fact that her current vessel was merely mortal. Her life was more than she could have ever dreamed it would be. Still, she felt like there was something wrong or missing. What could it be? She tried to shake the feeling that had come over her lately, but it always remained in the back of her mind where it gnawed at her like a hungry sewer rat whenever it got the chance. For now, she was able to bury it again as she road onward, as the streets became more narrow and even more rural.

Her home was near the edge of town, and also near the edge of the forest. Nornville was one of those small towns where everyone somehow seemed to know or at least know of everyone else, due in part to its isolation. It was away from everything and everyone else. It had that small, friendly, yet slightly backwater vibe to it that made a visitor wonder whether they had stepped back in time depending on where in town they were. The people tended to be hospitable and friendly, save for the stereotypical testosterone-possessed high school jocks like the ones that drove past her. The isolation made this place a mixing pool of modern and older times. Some of the streets were badly paved or not paved at all like the one near her house. Some held to the circular layout common in older towns and others were more uniform and grid-like. Many of the side-walks were cobblestoned and narrow. Yet, if one walked to the next block, there would be a cement side-walk waiting at the intersection. Most of the buildings had changed with the times, but there were those few old family houses around the edges of the town that had an older and grand nature. One of them kind of reminded Ellen of her house in the woods, but she felt nothing: no nostalgia, pain, or regret when she saw it. The true Witch's House had faded into nothing along with every tangible piece of her previous life. It was all a footnote in history now-nothing but dust and a memory. It was in the past, and it meant no more to her now then the dust on a table.

She noticed that it had gotten much darker as the sun was began to disappear behind the tree line that was getting steadily larger in the distance. She was nearly home now. She left the last of the paved roads behind which became evident as she felt the ride getting more bumpy. She smiled. She was exhausted, annoyed, and ready to have this damn day done and over with already. She turned and coasted across the street and up a gravel path that led some distance a way from everything else around except the trees. At this point, she got off her bike and started to walk. Even though it was a pain and it would take an extra five minutes, she had learned the hard way not to underestimate the damage a few pieces of gravel against a bike and its rider could do. She hurried as quickly as she could up the path. She pushed further and further towards the forest until finally, her house came into view. It was a simple two story house with nothing terribly special about it on the outside. Just a small house with a shingled roof and a couple of small windows on each side and a single-car garage built in on the left side. This was home sweet home.

She noted that the lights weren't on as she guided her bike up to the garage door next to a large black pick-up truck. She put it off to the side of the garage and then tried to get inside only to find a yellow post-it on the nearby light blue mailbox. She ripped it off and it scanned the messy black ink printing: If you're reading this, then I'm out hunting. Thought I'd grab us something to eat tonight or tomorrow. If you get hungry before I'm home, I think we still have some Campbells in the pantry so help yourself. Be back soon Viola - Dad.

"Oh gooood," she huffed as she tossed her head and her golden blonde hair back behind her. At least he told her where he was going, although he could've just called or sent her a text. That man did like his handwritten letters, there was no question about it. _What a good father,_ she thought and then smiled triumphantly. It was much as she had done when she stared down at the legless girl after saying those exact words.

A cold gust of wind snapped her out of her reverie as it blew past her into the nearby trees, causing the Autumn red, gold, and orange leaves to fly free and dance their way to the ground. She decided since she was only wearing a short-sleeved and rather thin shirt that she'd best get inside. She reached under a rock on the stone-line path to the front door and got out the spare house key and hurried inside. She walked past the television and the comfy brown three-man fabric couch with a bit of a slump in her shoulders. Past the door leading to the kitchen, and went into the room on her left at the end of the small hallway. She pulled her red backpack off her shoulders as soon as she got in and immediately tossed it onto a bed with white covers, sheets, and pillows where it landed with a muffled thump and a little bounce. It was a relief to get that off of her back. She walked to the bed, kicked off her red sneakers, and practically let herself fall right into bed with a satisfied sigh.

She checked her watch. Five-thirty. Knowing her father, he'd be out at least half an hour, maybe longer. She wasn't especially hungry right now so she decided to wait until he returned to discuss food options. The only thing she wanted to do was rest her eyes a bit. She moved her backpack off of the bed, wondering why she'd ever put it there in the first place and stretched herself out and let out another sigh of contentment. What a day it had been! She knew she had to open the garage and put her bike in there at some point, but there was no rush. For now, she could finally relax.

Except she couldn't. The longer she lay in the gathering dusk and silence of her home, the more she realized it was not silent at all. There was this noise, this repetitive and irritating noise coming from somewhere nearby. It sounded like a faint scratching sound. _Scratch-Scratch-Scratch_. It fell silent for a few seconds, but then it started up again. _Scratch-Scratch-Scratch._ Ellen sat up and looked around, trying to find the source of the sound. It came again, a little louder this time. Could it be the dog? No, he would be out with her father on the hunt right now. If it was the dog, then she would also have heard her Dad too by this point. _Scratch-Scratch-Scratch_.

"What the hell?" Ellen muttered to herself in annoyance. She had no idea what was making that noise, but it was about to regret it. She stood up out of bed and listened carefully. It sounded like it was coming from behind her, but the from where she was standing, the only thing behind her was the wall of her room and that beyond that was the backyard. Although, her closet was also behind her to the left against the wall by the bed. She turned and walked over to it the sliding mirror door of her closet and threw it open and looked around. Nothing there but her wardrobe and some stuff she'd stored away. She noted the slightly tattered white dress at the far left side with the bow on the back of it. It was the exact one Viola used to wear five years ago, and that she wore during her escape from the house. She kept it because why not, but she hadn't worn it since. It probably wouldn't fit this body as she had likely outgrown it. She shuffled the hangers to the side, searching for the source of the scratching noise. She saw nothing there. It was probably some stupid animal outside. _Scratch-Scratch-Scratch._ It was definitely outside. She growled and closed her closet door and headed back outside, this time through the door the last door in the hallway. She pushed open the screen door and walked down the cement steps into the backyard. It was small, with a hammock between two small trees at the far end and lined by a wooden post fence. She moved back around to the area where she had heard the noise. Now everything was quiet. She scanned the low hedge directly under her window, looking for any sign of whatever it was.

"Hmph. Must of scurried off when it heard me coming," she said, smiling again. She turned back around, and that's when she saw...she wasn't entirely sure what she saw. At the far end of the yard past the hammock, amongst some of the hedges directly in front of the fenceposts, she saw a dark shape. In the gathering gloom it was hard to make out its exact size or coloration as it was partially concealed by the foliage, but it was definitely there. She looked at it for a moment, trying to move in so she could get a better view and figure out what it was. As she crept closer, it started to slip away to the right. It moved with effortless grace and speed through the brush as though it were nothing but a black shadow and then vanished behind the brush where it got too thick to see through. Ellen moved closer, but she was starting to get a bad feeling. Her gut was telling her not to investigate it, and in the back of her mind a little red flag went up. She saw it come out on the other side of the thicket, and disappear through a hole in the fence. The way it moved was eerily familiar. It slunk along low to the ground using its agility and flexibility to maneuver through the brush like it was nothing. She had a feeling she knew what it was, but she hoped she was wrong. Realistically, she probably was wrong. She couldn't say for sure what it was that she had seen, and the odds were that it was just some random animal. But, her instincts told her otherwise.

"Come make noise under my window again while I'm trying to rest! See what happens! I dare you! No, I double dare you motherfucker! Do it again!" She shouted at nothing. "Damn vermin!" She went over and got a semi worn brick that was just laying around for no reason and jammed it into the hole in the fence. If it was an animal, it wouldn't be coming back in now unless there was another hole somewhere else. She got the feeling though that this was no ordinary animal, and in that case the brick was a waste of time.

For now at least, it was gone. She smiled again. On the bright side, the animal had allowed her an opportunity to make everybody's favorite Pulp Fiction reference and actually have it be semi-serious. She had watched that movie so many times that she'd memorized most of the lines. She decided to take a look at where whatever that thing was had been scratching to see if there was damage, or possibly an indicator of why it was there. She looked and saw that there were some claw marks in the side of the house. They were very faint, but there were many of them across a three foot wide space in the wall. It had been busy. Ellen noticed a certain pattern to the marks almost like a-

"Yo!" Came a voice behind her.

"Holy Shh-!" Ellen gasped as she wheeled around in surprise, falling directly onto her butt.

Standing right behind her, was a large-bodied muscular individual standing at just over six feet tall with messy dirty blonde hair, green-blue eyes, and a pleasant look on his face. He had on long brown pants, dark green hiking boots, a white sleeveless shirt. In his left arm, he had a brown .22 hunting rifle which he held against his shoulder and in his right hand he had three white strings, each connected to the carcass of a rabbit. They hung limply by their back feet and swung around whenever he moved his arm. At the sight, Ellen's twinge of fear vanished and became relief. Not who she thought it was after all. Father was home early.

"Hey, you okay Vi?" He asked, looking down at her. He then let his gun fall to the ground and extended his hand out to her and helped her to her feet.

"Jeez Louise, Dad!" She grumbled in annoyance. "Don't sneak up on me like that! You scared the heck out of me!"

"I'm sorry," he said, unable to stifle a couple of chuckles.

"It's okay! I'm glad you're back Daddy," she said, embracing him. Mentally she felt an ever so slight urge to gag herself with a spoon in disgust. Sometimes putting on this farce of a show was a total pain in the ass. She no longer had to force herself to do this as she had in the past. It had become much easier to be her Daddy's perfect little angel over the years.

"I'm glad to be home Vi," he said, embracing her. Then he reached down to pick up his gun, but as he did so he stopped and asked: "What're you doing out here with no shoes?"

"Oh, uh..." Ellen trailed off as she tried to think of a good reason. Then she decided: screw it and just told him. "I was trying to rest after I got home from tutoring but some animal was making noise outside so I came out and chased it away."

"Animal, huh? Did you see what it was?"

"No, but I think it got in through a hole in the fence over there," she said, pointing to it. "I put a loose brick there so it wouldn't be able to come back."

"Good thinking," he smiled. "You're always thinking outside the box and planning ahead. I like that. I'll patch it up in the morning before I go off to work. Come on, let's go inside. It's getting dark and chilly out here." Then, he turned and whistled very loudly towards the open gate in the fence. A couple of seconds later the sound of a jingling piece of metal could be heard as a large bulky German Shepherd with a magnificent black, brown and grey coat of fur came into view. It wore a black collar with a silvery oval-shaped dog tag on it. He was a gorgeous animal to be sure, and with energy that matched the magnitude of his appearance, he bounded forward and knocked Ellen back to the ground softly. Once she was pinned, his tail began to wag furiously as he proceeded to lick the living daylights out of the blonde-haired teenager.

"Toby!" She yelled while partially laughing at the same time between licks. "Stop it! That tickles!"

"I think it's safe to say he missed you, Viola," laughed her father.

"I missed you too pup," she responded, as though the dog was the one talking. "Now-blegh...Could you please get off me?" After some effort, she finally managed to wriggle free from the canine and get to her feet. In truth she found his affection to be somewhat irritating, but that aside he was a very useful and loyal pet indeed. She had chosen well when her father took her to the animal shelter to choose a puppy for her fifteenth birthday. Her body's fifteenth birthday anyway. She also could not deny that while his slobbering, barking, and other dog activities drove her nuts from time-to-time, it was adorable. He was a pain, but he was cute enough that she put up with it.

She reached down and patted him on the head and forced a smile before she started to follow her father up the steps inside the house. She turned to look back out at the yard, scanning it again to make sure whatever it was she had seen was really gone. She saw nothing, so she turned and headed inside with Toby faithfully at her side. She reached into a large jar full of grainy brown bone-shaped dog treats sitting on the dryer in a side area to the left coming in from that direction and grabbed one. Automatically, Toby began to whine and beg, looking pleadingly up at the blonde.

"Sit," she commanded, raising her finger. He sat down on his hind legs, never once taking his eyes off her. "Lie down," she commanded again while trying to wipe some of his slobber from her face with a free hand. He then flattened out and lay his underside completely down on the light blue-tiled floor. "Good boy," she said in a more friendly tone. She then tossed the treat up in the air over him. The dog got up and caught it in his jaws before it hit the ground and began to crunch it to pieces. She smiled again. He was a very good dog. Sometimes, she thought she was a bit too generous to him but she didn't mind. Sometimes she found it very oddly enjoyable.

"Did you eat yet?" Called her father from his room upstairs. Like clockwork, he immediately would go to his room to get his special tools whenever he came home from a successful hunt. He would then take his catch to the garage, where he would skin, gut, and clean it before hosing out the whole area of blood and remains. He rarely parked his black pick-up truck in the garage for this precise reason, instead he wound up leaving it in the driveway most of the time.

"No, Dad," she called back. "Hold on a sec, I'm gonna go wash all this saliva off my face and hands."

"What?"

"I said, I need to go wash up because of the dog!"

"Oh, okay!"

Ellen went to the bathroom, which was the room directly before hers and did just as she said. She was fastidious with her personal grooming to the point of obsession. Again and again she splashed water on her face and washed it off before she grabbed a white hand-cloth from the towel cubby by the sink and dried herself. After she draped the cloth over the edge of the ovular shaped white porcelain sink she looked at herself in the mirror. Her wavy golden blonde hair was a mess, but that was to be expected after the day's tiring events and the dog's relentless assault. Wild bangs that seemed to go every direction hung down from her head over her face. She let her hair grow out quite a bit lately. It was to the point that it stretched more than halfway down her back and draped over the front and back of her shoulders. She never wore it in braids anymore, instead preferring to wear a simple barrett hairpin with a small little blue bow on top of it to keep the hair somewhat away from her face and ears. _Maybe it's time to get a haircut,_ she thought as she wiped the bangs out of her face, fully revealing her emerald green eyes. She smiled at herself. She looked very attractive and she knew it. This body was, depending on taste, what might be described as the perfect combination of elegance, slimness, and curvature. She worked hard on a daily basis to make sure of that. She had a membership to a local gym that she actually used regularly. She had a whole workout regimen of stretches and exercises at home as well. She had gotten it down to a science that helped her maintain her form's attractive features and yet also remain in peak physical condition. This allowed her to wear tight form-fitting blue jeans quite easily. She had on a short sleeved white shirt and green earrings that matched her eyes. Around her neck she was a simple silver chain necklace with small cat-shaped pendant attached to it.

She decided to not bother freshening up any further for the moment. She knew what needed to be done right now anyway. Normally she would have changed her shirt but this was one she didn't care about getting stains on so she left it alone. She did take off her necklace and slipped it into her pocket.

"Vi, can you help me with these?" Her father called down to her. She knew him too well. This routine too, had become like clockwork for her.

"Yes Daddy!" she answered cheerily. "You want me to head out to the garage?" She truly was his perfect little angel, always ready to help whenever he needed it. Hers was an act she had perfected over many years, many more than he would have guessed in his wildest dreams. During the first year or so after the body switch he often commented on how much more helpful and cheerful she had become. She couldn't help but smile in triumph and laugh aloud in satisfaction remembering his words. It seemed she was better at being the sweet-natured and selfless Viola than Viola herself. It was truly hilarious just how utterly and completely she had defeated the girl! It was no challenge at all. She used her sickness, her vulnerability, and her situation to manipulate Viola and countless others. Now, she used her beauty, her strength, and her false demeanor to get what she wanted, when she wanted it regardless of who or what got in the way. Why shouldn't she? If she didn't, then others would do it to her. That was the way the world worked. She learnt that the hard way. No matter what anyone said, no matter how they acted, they always had their own reasons for doing anything especially if it involved other people. Humans saw each other as tools to used until they became inconvenient. Anyone who thought different, like Viola, was an idiot of the highest order.

"Yeah, that'd be great!" Her father finally said after a pause. "Actually, while you're at it, run the hose line out for me and lay out the table, would you?"

"Sure thing!" She replied as she made a beeline for the garage, tossing her still disheveled hair back again. She opened the door and clicked the button on the wall next to the light switch that opened the garage door. With a mechanical hum the door slowly lifted open as the track system pulled it up against the ceiling. She went through the open door around to the side and began to unwind the long green hose from its wind-up holster built into the wall next to the spigot where it drew water from. She lifted it over her shoulder so it wouldn't drag across the ground and brought into the garage. It wouldn't be needed yet but it was nice to have it ready. She then went over to the wall with the door leading against the house and grabbed a long, grey plastic-topped table with foldable metal legs off of a couple of metal hooks in the wall. As she backed away, she almost lost her balance due to the sheer dimensions of the table compared to her own. It was not as wieldy in her hands as her father's even if it was not particularly heavy.

"Oh fuck-fuck-fuck-fuuuuu-!" She shouted as she started to stumble backwards while trying to keep the table in hand. She managed to regain her balance and keep the damn thing in her grip, but only just. "Whew," She breathed. "Ellen: one, gravity: zero. Check it!" She then set unfolded the legs and placed it in the middle of the garage. The table had numerous red-ish brown stains on its surface, but most were faint and hardly noticeable. She went over to another hook by the set that normally held the table and grabbed a roll of paper towels off of it and began to tear off several pieces at once. She laid them out on the table one by one until the surface of was completely covered. It didn't really help with the blood from these carcasses all that much, but the true purpose of the paper was to have a barrier between the animal and the table that helped prevent foreign unwanted elements from finding their way into the carcass during this process.

"Done already, Viola?" Asked her father as he stood in the doorway with the rabbits in hand.

"Wow! That was perfect timing, Dad!" She stated as she turned and smiled. "Is there anything else you need me to do?" She questioned in an enthusiastic tone. She purposefully made the energy in her voice sound somewhat forced when she said it. She asked because she was secretly hoping he wouldn't ask her to help him with the gory part of this affair as he sometimes did. She had no problem with blood and guts of any kind, but she was still rather exhausted and not in the mood right now. She wanted to return to her bed and relax a bit, and .

"Uh...if you want, you can do one of these," said her father as he carried them over to the table. "You sound kind of tired though, so if you want to go take it easy that's fine."

"Uh, if it's all the same to you, I think I'll go chill on my bed."

"No problem. Go for it," he said.

"Thanks, Dad," she said happily. Mentally, Ellen chuckled. Got him-hook, line, and sinker. He was a good man, but not especially intelligent so he was fairly easy to predict and manipulate when she wished. He was a long way from what she considered to be stupid, but not anywhere near her level either.

"Long day, huh?"

"Mhm. Very. It was hotter than hell today at school and tutoring was a pain. It was all the same basic stuff I had to memorize at the start of biology. It's so easy I could do it in my sleep. Watch, I might just do that."

Her father smiled at her and said: "Well, it's good that you're getting the review before final exams. It never hurts. So it was biology to-"

He stopped talking suddenly as the sound of a helicopter's blades spinning through the air at high speeds de-railed his train of thought. It had been getting steadily louder for about a minute and a half, and now it was too loud to ignore. They both walked out from the garage and looked up into the sky. A black helicopter came buzzing through the evening sky at an oddly low altitude directly over their house and the forest where the trees concealed it from their sight as it sped onward.

"I wonder where he was headed," said her father. "Was that a news chopper or something?"

"I don't think so," replied Ellen. "I didn't see any news station insignia on it. Did you?"

"No. Hmm. It was flying pretty low and unless I'm crazy, it looked like it had some kind of cargo strapped to the bottom."

"Yeah, I saw that. It looked like a couple of big boxes wrapped up in a net. What do you think it was carrying, Dad?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, Vi. Maybe it was going to that place they were building in the forest."

"What? Place?" Asked a perplexed Ellen. What place could he be referring to?

"Oh I could swear I told you about it. Anyway, a few years ago, I think it was only a couple of months after our encounter with-" he stopped and shuddered for a moment. "-That thing. Anyway, I was hunting in near the area where it happened and found a fence there, blocking off a pretty decent sized chunk of the area. Quite a few of the trees that used to be there beyond it were cleared out too. Not all, but most of them. Now at this point, I'm thinking to myself: what the hell is going on here? So I started to follow the edge of the fence around. I go maybe about four hundred meters trudging through the forest on my side and I came across a really big gate in the fence with a dirt path up into some area a few hundred meters inside or so. Standing on either side of the gate were these two military types, uniforms, guns, and the whole deal. I asked them what was going on, but they said it was government property and that I had to leave right then."

Ellen raised an eyebrow. She thought about it. Had he told her this before? After some careful thinking, she finally recalled his story, but she wanted to be sure to check in case there was more to it. "What? That's it? Just like that?" She asked, trying to probe him to see if he had anymore information.

"Yes. And I wasn't about to argue with them either since they both had bigger guns than I did. I think they both had bloody AK's." Both of them broke into chuckles.

"Oh yeah, now I remember!" Ellen exclaimed. She realized at that point that he either didn't know anything else, or didn't want to tell her for whatever reason. Either way she was only mildly curious and didn't consider pressing the matter to be worth while.

"Maybe that helicopter was headed there for some reason, who knows?" He said shrugging his shoulders. "Well, our forest seems to be the hot place for all kinds of monsters. First there's the legend of a witch kidnapping people, then we run into...I guess some kind of zombie or something, and now the worst of em' all."

"What would that be?" Ellen inquired.

"Top-secret government facilities," he sighed with a shake of his head. Ellen rolled her eyes. Her father was a bit of a conspiracy theorist and did not approve of the concept of classified information whatsoever. This was a side of him that got quite annoying-almost as annoying as his obsession with guns. He had an entire room of the house dedicated to his gun collection. She did not understand the appeal of having something just for the purpose of collecting it as opposed to using it. Especially since he had ammunition for all of the guns in the collection but only ever used three of them. It was a strange idea that irked her. It seemed there were some quirks among regular humans that she still did not understand, nor did she ever expect to.

"Say, now that I think about it, didn't you used to have a friend that lived around there? You know, kind of near that side of the forest? What was her name again? Amy? Ella?"

"Ellen," she replied quickly. How did he even make the leap from Ellen to Amy? "We didn't really keep in touch after she moved away. I hope she's alright, wherever she is now. She wasn't looking too good the last time I saw her." She had to resist the urge to laugh at her own inside joke._  
_

"I'm sure she's fine," said her father. "I really admire that about you, Vi. The way you're always worried about everyone else."

"The only thing I'm worried about right now," Ellen said in the middle of a loud yawn as she stretched her arms up to the ceiling. "Is executing a napping sequence for a little while."

"Of course," he said. "Actually, I'll wake you up when dinner's ready, okay?"

"No, wake me up when you're done with this and I'll help with the cooking," she said with a smile. She would have preferred to sleep longer than that, but she did have some homework to do this evening and she secretly did not fancy the way her father prepared rabbits. Besides, she felt like she only really needed a power nap.

"Thank you, Viola. You're a gem."

"You do so much for the two of us. It's the least I can do." She turned and walked back inside the house, wearing a proud smirk on her face all the way.

She made her way back to her bed and flopped down on it once again. She let out a very satisfied: "Mmmmmm," as she grabbed the white pillow and pulled it under her head and closed her eyes and let sleep come to her.

After what felt like less than a second of comfort however, she suddenly felt dizzy to the point of nausea. She opened her eyes, and the world began to blur and spin around her. She rubbed her eyes, trying to shrug it off, but to no avail. She tried to sit up, but her lacking sense of balance caused her simply to fall back in bed. She closed her eyes as the feeling got worse. It got to the point where she felt like she wanted to throw-up, but then suddenly, it stopped. Her eyes blinked open. Wait! This wasn't her bedroom! Somehow, the world seemed to have grown around her considerably. She looked up at a white ceiling. Her eyes came to rest on an elaborate but rather small black iron chandelier hanging down from it. It did not have light fixtures, but two partially melted wax candles sticking up from either side. The candles were not lit. _Wait a minute!_ She thought. _This is my old room! _

"What the hell?" She whispered. Her voice was different too. Higher pitched and very different tonally, but she knew it only too well. It was her old voice, but unburdened by weak lungs or wheezes. Now this was getting weird. She looked at her hands, and even without bandages or blood she recognized them as her original hands. But, that wasn't even possible, was it? What on Earth was going on here?

"Yo!" Came a voice with a soothing and yet sinister ring to it that snapped her back to the situation at hand. She knew that voice too, but she was hoping never to hear it again. She pushed herself up and looked toward the foot of her bed. There sat a medium-sized black cat with piercing golden eyes and a tail that flicked lazily from side-to-side behind him.

"...Ah, crap," Ellen growled, thinking aloud. Even if this was just a dream, why oh why did he have to be in it?

"Yeesh, that's a fine hello," said the cat as he stepped towards her on her right leg. "I'm doing just fine by the way, thanks for asking. How're you?"

Ellen simply rolled back onto her side. She was done talking to demons, in particular this one.

"Hey! H-hey! I know you can hear me! We're in your head so you'll hear me no matter what you do! Stop ignoring me!"

"Hmph," she sighed. "In my head, you say?" Ellen asked. She had a feeling that was the case. "Why do I look like this?"

"Well, we're in your head, so of course you look like your real self here."

"What do you want?" Ellen asked grudgingly. She wasn't interested in what he had to say or making any deal, but the less time he spent in her mind the better. She had to speed this conversation along.

"Straight to the point whenever possible, as always," said the cat. "Fair enough. I just came to tell you something."

"You could've just showed up whenever to do that. What's with all the horsing around? Why were you outside my window scratching at the wall earlier?" She wasn't buying that he came by to tell her something. Not even if he just somehow appeared wherever she was like he always had before would she have believed that. She reasoned that appearing in her dreams was probably taxing or risky in some way, but she couldn't imagine what.

"Ah, we'll get to the scratching," he answered smoothly as he lay down upon her chest, and in typical feline fashion, proceeded to stretch himself out completely. "I didn't just appear because I don't want anyone to know that we had a little chat. Might draw the wrong kind of attention, y'know?"

"You mean you're being watched?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. "By who, or what? Quit being coy and just tell me?"

"I'm not the one being watched, Ellen. You are. As to who or why, I'm honestly not entirely sure. I'd imagine it has something to do with the 'Viola' switcheroo business five years ago. By the way, congrats on pulling that off. You might well be the only person ever to successfully use that spell. All the rest I've heard of or seen died almost instantly afterwards because the new body and the soul didn't...meld properly." Ellen's eyes widened. That was news to her, not to mention very important information that he neglected to tell her when he taught her the spell. Her anger began to boil. So, he taught her the spell but left that detail out so that either way, he'd get one final soul out of their contract. Whether it was hers or Viola's didn't matter to him. She truly hated his guts sometimes. She kept her composure though.

"I'm being watched? You wouldn't come all this way and go to all this trouble just to tell me that. Let's be honest. The only thing you really care about is getting more souls."

"Oh, ouch!" He said with a sarcastic sad tone in his voice. "That's a very mean thing to say, Ellen. Demons do have feelings, you know. But anyway, you are right about one thing. I can't stay in your head for too long, so in the interest of time I'll just cut right to the chase. You're being watched, but that's not why I came. There are two reasons for me appearing to you like this. Item number one on the agenda is that something's starting to happen. I sense a storm of sorts heading for your sleepy little town. More specifically, it's headed for your country and possibly the world, but that's beside the point."

"What do you mean by storm?"

"An upheaval. Something bad, for lack of a better term is coming for Nornville. How do I know this? Well, I've walked the Earth for millennia and I've learned to pick up on things like this over the years. I also think it's connected to the little humans that have been watching your every move since you got that body. Incidentally, they've built themselves quite an interesting facility in the woods. Unfortunately, that's all I know at the moment. I'll keep looking and when I know, you'll know. That's why I scratched at your wall. I can't see you freely and I can't pull this little trick of mine very often, so I left behind a special way of passing them dirty little secrets along as I find them. It'll look like random-ass claw marks in the wall to anyone but you thanks to the illusion I put on it. When I want to tell you something interesting, you and you alone will be able to read it."

Ellen nodded. Something about the way he was behaving, the look in his eyes, and his tone made her believe what he was telling her. He wasn't lying, but she knew he wasn't telling her everything either.

"The second reason I came is-" suddenly the cat started to get blurry and transparent like the effect on a digital camera when it couldn't quite focus on the intended subject. His voice faded for a second, and then he became clear and whole again. He shook his head and looked around.

"Running out of time, I assume?" Ellen asked. She didn't show the slightest hint of emotion.

"Yeah," he replied. He sounded tired, or stressed perhaps. She had never seen him get like this before. Ellen was relieved. This farce was almost over now.

"Anyway, the other reason I came was to offer you a deal. I want you to become my witch again, just until whatever is going to happen is over if that's what you want. I sense an opportunity to eat a whole lot of souls. I'm talking about the kind of feast that comes only once in a few decades if that and...what? What's so funny?"

Ellen was laughing hysterically. Who did this demon think he was trying to tempt? She wasn't the same desperate and lonely seven-year old girl from centuries past. She had no intention of ever making a contract with any demon ever again. "What's so funny," she said, still chuckling. "-is that you think I'd even consider that. I don't need to be cured of some illness, and I'm finally getting all the love and attention I want. I don't care about the power; never did, really. The magic was amazing and all, but it was just my way to finding an escape from my sickness, Cat-Boy. Let's say for the hell of it, that I decided to take you up on your offer. I become your witch again 'temporarily' and you get this heaping helping of dead human souls because of me using my power to do whatever to people during this 'storm.' What's in it for me?"

"That depends," he said, glancing down at his paw and flexing it. He started to fade in and out again. This time it took a few seconds before his image became clear and tangible again. He did not have long, and he began to sound even more fatigued as he spoke. "The souls not only nourish me, in large enough amounts at once they make my powers way, way stronger. After all is said and done, I'll take your powers away and then you decide. You can have anything you want. Your wish is my command."

Ellen's eyes widened again. Was he serious? Anything she wanted, and he'd do it after removing the power from her so that she wouldn't be trapped in service to him? This must be big for him to make an offer like that. She knew he always chose his words with extreme care. He told her enough to catch her interest, but not enough to risk revealing all the cards in his hand at the time. It was almost flattering that he would do that, but nevertheless, she would not be bought so easily. His offer did make her wonder again what it was in her life that she wanted. What was it that was missing? Maybe he could fill the hole in her life, but alas, there was no way she was going to bargain with him again. She was through being a servant and a tool. She couldn't care less about all the lives she had ended, and the souls he had devoured.

"Wow! that sounds like a pretty good deal," she said. "But, sorry Mittens. Not interested."

"You sure about that? When I said anything, I meant-any"

"Look, I was trying to be nice, y'know, for old time's sake, even though I don't like you that much, to be honest." He started to blur and fade again and she smiled as she continued: "But me becoming your witch again? That's crazy talk. You have nothing I want, and even if you did I'm through being your personal pet assassin. That life is over for me! It ended five years ago, now leave me alone! I'm not helping you get more souls. Not now! Not ever!" Before she finished her ultimatum, he faded back into the darkness and shadows of the room she was in as if he were the darkness itself. All at once, the dizzying feeling returned and the world began to spin around Ellen once more.

"Agh!" She cried out, sitting up in bed suddenly. She blinked once as she got her senses in order and looked around, panting slightly. She saw the electric light hanging down from her ceiling. She saw the familiar sliding mirror door of her closet. She looked at her hands. They were larger now. She grabbed some of her hair and held it out in front of her. It was golden blonde. Her dream was over. She was back where she belonged. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and laid her head back against the pillow. She took a deep breath, and let out a long sigh of relief. For some reason, that ordeal had gotten to her more than she thought while it was happening. This time was different from every other encounter she had with the Black Cat. It was unsettling enough that he was rattling around in her mind, but that by itself wouldn't shake her like this. She had no idea why she felt so unnerved.

As the nausea wore off she became aware that Toby was sitting right by her bedside looking up at her and whimpering. Somehow, without any magic to link their minds, he always seemed to know when she was out of sorts. He was always there for her no matter what. She looked down at him and smiled. She was truly glad to see him at the moment. She could tell he wanted to come up on the bed with her, but he was waiting for her to give him the okay to do so just as she had trained him. She scooted over a bit closer to the wall and patted the space next to her on the bed three times. The shepherd immediately hopped up onto the bed and lay down next to her. She reached over and patted him on the head. He turned and licked her once on the cheek. She smiled and wrapped her arms around his mid section.

"Thanks Toby," she said softly. "Good dog." She felt very relieved to have his company right now.

Meanwhile, a pair of golden orbs looked out at the house from just behind the line of trees that marked the edge of the forest.

"Not interested, eh? We'll see how long that lasts, kiddo. For now, I'm going to go see what those humans are up to in the forest. But, don't worry, I'll be in touch. Hehehehe!" With that, the eyes faded back into the gathering darkness of the night...


	4. Chapter III-The Hunt Begins

**Note: If you haven't already, I strongly recommend reading Ellen's Diary. I believe it was made by the creator of Witch's House, and it helps explain a lot of the lore behind the game. More importantly, it'll give new insight into who Ellen is, where she came from, and why she does what she does in the game. You'll find it at their tumblr which is called: vgperson. **

Chapter III - The Hunt Begins

A dark blue van made its way out heading South towards Nornville through the darkness. They were still easily forty-five minutes away from the their destination, but they moved onward at a constant speed. Inside the van were an older couple and their three little kids. They kept driving until they came across something, or rather someone lying in the road. They immediately stopped the vehicle and the older man got out to examine the obstacle blocking their path. To his shock it was a little boy, no older than nine or ten lying in a bizarre position on the road. The man couldn't tell in the dark what the kid looked like exactly or whether or not he was injured. His door was open so he called back to his wife, telling her what was going on, but didn't wait for a response. He went over to the kid and knelt down to check and see if he was alright. The boy's pale skin was colder to the touch than the man was expecting. Instantly the man feared the worst and looked around. The kid was motionless, and there was no sign of external injury to him, nor was there any blood around. What was going on here? He bent down and put his ear to the boy's chest, listening for signs of a heartbeat. Nothing...nothing at all.

Then suddenly, without any warning at all, the kid wrapped his hands around the chest of the poor hapless fool, and the last thing he felt was incredible stinging agony like no other on Earth as teeth as sharp as a surgeon's scalpel pierced into the side of his neck, cutting deep into his flesh and his pulsing jugular vein. He let out a cry of terror and pain that quickly became more of a gurgling death-rattle as his wife and children looked on, powerless to help him. He saw his own blood splatter and drip onto the ground around the kid as his life came to an end. The wife turned to get out the car and help her kids get away as the gruesome spectacle unfolded, but before she could touch the handle of the car door the kids shrieked and the wife felt a cold hand on her shoulder. She heard an unearthly moan as who or whatever was holding her pulled her closer. She looked over her shoulder, and the last thing she saw was a pair of glowing purple eyes and jagged sharp teeth. The last thing she heard was the glass on the back windows shatter and her kids scream in horror. Just like her husband, the last sensation she knew on this Earth was excruciating pain as her assailant tore into her.

Several moments later, the little boy pushed the corpse of the husband aside and got to his feet, and dusted himself off whilst the wife and kids screamed to their last breath, leaving the windshield and back windows with a fresh coat of smeared crimson paint. Numerous dark figures milled about the car, trying to tear at it to get in anyway they could to join the feeding frenzy. Two more forms stepped out of the shadows from either side of the road and joined the boy. Both were considerably taller, but obscured by the darkness and the backlight from the car's lights. He wiped some of the blood off of his chin and licked it.

"That was tasty," he said. "And you should have seen the look on his face! Oh, it was just too good! The utter horror! The dumb confusion in his eyes! Soooo satisfying!"

"Enough messing around with these little meat sacks," said the individual to his right in a sultry, but mature and refined female voice. "It's almost time. Remember why we're here. We have to-"

"Yeah, yeah," said the kid with a smirk. "We have to find and capture the target. Kill any and all witnesses. Blah, blah, blah. I know, I know. You're such a pain sometimes. This'll be a piece of cake, so stop worryin'."

"Don't bet on that," said the one to his left. This one had the voice of an adult male with an Italian accent. "The Hellsing Organization sent one of their pets. We have to be careful."

"That's why I'm here, isn't it?" asked the boy rhetorically. "I'll totally crush anyone and anything that tries to stop us, and our 'glorious leader' will have his prize. Now, let's get moving, there's a whole town of yahoos up ahead ripe for the taking."

"Hell yesssss," hissed the female. "Besides, I'm a bit peckish myself after watching that performance." With that all three of them laughed and the boy snapped his finger. Instantly, the shapes behind them stopped moving and gathered behind the three. As they did so, the corpse of the man on the ground near the boy's feet began to twitch and moan. Slowly, but surely, he forced himself back up to its feet with a hideous squelching sound as blood spurted from a massive tear in the side of his neck, drenching his clothes. His eyes now had the same unearthly purple glow as all the others around the three.

"Alright kiddies," said the boy. "Let's roll out. We're not getting any younger, even if we're not getting any older either hehehehe! Man I'm funny!" With that, two of them headed back into the woods on the left side of the road with some of the horrid creatures behind them, following the path right toward Nornville. The boy stepped off to the right and vanished into the forest with the other monsters right behind him. The town lay in wait, without the slightest hint of what was coming for them. They were oblivious to severity of the threat looming over them.

Meanwhile...

"Let me get this straight," said a rather pudgy police officer with a lush dark brown beard but a balding head a pair of beady brown eyes. "You're telling me that we need to essentially close the town because of a suspected terrorist threat. You do realize what you're asking? I can't jus-"

"It's not suspected," said Viola matter-of-factly as she sat in a chair opposite across from him on a wooden desk. "We know it's coming." She had altered her appearance slightly for this meeting. Her hair was now slightly longer and unbraided to give her a more mature and serious appearance and she wore gold-rimmed Ray Band sunglasses over her eyes. Most people found red eyes to be a bit intimidating after all. She had shape-shifted her trench coat and Hellsing uniform into something resembling a high-ranking secret agent-type attire. It was a black suit with a white button-up undershirt and dark pants. Her facial features, height, and body shape remained completely unchanged except that she had shortened her fangs. She had never tried taking this form before, but Alucard would sometimes change into a businessman-look in the rare event he had to make any sort of contact with the local populace of wherever they were. She wasn't particularly thrilled about the feel of her current clothing, it was a bit itchy and not as easy to move around in as her usual attire. In these situations however, the appropriate appearance often helped immensely. This meeting was the first, and so far the longest item on her to-do list since arriving here. She glanced at her watch. It was nearly eight-thirty now. She had been sitting here for nearly two hours of this nonsense! She didn't even get a chance to tour the so-called safe house before coming here, which was really more like a small mansion.

In order for the Hellsing Organization to deal with the vampire threat quickly and quietly, they needed to be able to have eyes on everything in Nornville and have as minimal civilian interference as possible. They needed the police and the local government to cooperate with them, but at the moment that was not happening. Viola was getting increasingly frustrated, but was trying to take the diplomatic approach at the moment. Her master would have hypnotized this guy and been on his merry way over an hour ago. Using an ability like that just to get her way didn't sit well with her. In essence, she was taking away someone's free will simply to make her job easier. Her orders were quite clear on this matter though. Integra and Alucard both would have told her to do whatever she had to do to ensure mission success no matter how much the injustice stung.

"Whether it is or not," sighed the officer. "There's just no way I can do that on this kind of notice. People go hunting around here, some have to leave to get to work early before sun-up, there's not enough of us to realistically enforce that rule even if you have the mayor's approval. Not with this kind of-"

"Look," Viola sighed. "I'm not telling you to do it this second. In fact, it would be better all around if that didn't become a thing since it would draw too much attention. We're trying to keep this as quiet and low-key as we can. Lockdown is a reserve option. What we need from you right now is to get some eyes on as many of the main ways in and out town as possible. Now, if your men see anything out of the ordinary, they need to report it immediately to you and then you'll tell us and we'll deal with it. Again, they need to observe and as soon as they spot something, report it and back off. And when I say something, I mean anything that's even a tiny bit out of the ordinary. Even if they think it's just a gut feeling, they need to call it in."

"Alright, but even that's a problem. Some of the guys go off-duty because of a shift-change in two hours. What do you want me to do? Tell my boys that they're working overtime tonight out of nowhere? Not to mention if your terrorist and his group of cronies don't show tonight and we have to do this again it just causes too much of a fuss."

Viola mentally face-palmed. Shift change?! Overtime?! Was he serious right now? Had she not made it clear that there were lives at stake? Was this guy an officer, or a bureaucrat disguised as one? How someone like this had managed to get this high up in law enforcement completely escaped her. Hellsing's anti-monster operations were normally very top-secret. There were rare exceptions to that when the situation wherever the incursion was had gotten completely out of hand, but for the most part it was a hush-hush sort of deal. This was far from out of control. With that rule in mind, she couldn't flat out tell him that there was a bloodsucking vampire and possibly a ghoul army heading for Nornville. Besides, even if he did believe her, he would just invent another excuse not to cooperate and rock the proverbial boat. _Hmph, __some public servant you are,_ Viola thought. _You're so damn worried about your job that you won't even do your job. _At this point, her hand had been forced. It was obvious that no matter what she did she wasn't going to get anywhere with words at this point. Even though technically she had the authority as an agent of Hellsing and the approval of the mayor to force him to cooperate, she needed to be sure that he followed instructions to the letter. She was going to regret it later, but now there was no alternative but to use the tried-and-true "Alucard formula" to solve this problem. Luckily, they were alone in the room so no one was going to see this. _  
_

She slowly took off her sunglasses and then leaned over the desk. The officer flinched as she extended her hand out towards his face, stopping just short of touching him with her index finger right between his incredibly dark brown eyes. The red upside-down pentagrams that had been absent in her current form reappeared on her black gloves and glowed for a moment before vanishing again. Suddenly he looked like he had become lost in the red pools of her eyes leaving an somewhat dumbed expression on his face. His own eyes turned red as his will gave way to hers. Now he was completely under her hypnosis. She could make him say or do whatever she wished and he would not question it or hesitate to do it.

"Send out some of your officers to get eyes on every main way in or out of town," she said slowly. Her voice had a more sinister tone to it now._  
_

"Yes...send out some of my officers...to get eyes on...every main way...in or out of town," he repeated in a monotone and submissive voice. It sounded almost robotic.

"Tell them to report any suspicious activity to you, and then as soon as they do you'll tell Corporal Mors outside."

"I'll tell them...to report...any suspicious activity to me...and then...I'll tell Corporal Mors."

"Once your boys see something, they report it and then get out of there."

"...Report it... and...get out of...there...Yes."

"Good," she said standing up. "Then let's make it happen, officer!"

"Of course...right away, miss."

Viola then turned and quickly stepped out of the office, leaving the pudgy police officer sitting there with a bizarrely blissful expression on his face. Almost immediately she noticed a couple people turned to look inside, and then after seeing him, turn back to look at her no doubt wondering: what in the hell had just happened in there? She immediately felt very guilty about doing that to him. Realistically, it was the best option since it would ensure that he would do as he was asked and that would help save lives. However, it felt wrong, like she had abused her powers. On the other hand, she felt a strange satisfaction from it. Having that kind of power over someone else was truly exhilarating. No matter how many times she had to use it, she always felt that rush. Besides, the problem was now solved and it didn't hurt anyone. She honestly didn't know how to feel about it right now. She didn't show her confliction though. Instead she walked on with a pleasant and pleased look on her face.

She walked towards two soldiers dressed in the typical dark green Hellsing uniform with a black or darker green padded vest on over it. They removed their red barets that sported the Hellsing crest on them, and the ones on their chest were covered by their vests. At the moment they just looked like generic soldiers of some kind. The taller and more muscular one had ginger hair cut down to a very militaristic-looking crew cut. He had piercing hazel eyes and a no-nonsense look on his face. His face reminded Viola of the old cartoon Batman's depiction of Bruce Wayne except for the hair and the eyes. This was Captain Daniel Murray, a seasoned Hellsing operative with ten years of experience battling the undead. The other soldier was a bit shorter and had a slightly longer and messier crew-cut of black hair. Hey had light blue eyes and a more lively expression than Murray. He smiled as Viola approached. He was known as Corporal Jean Ross. He was new to Hellsing, and had yet to face the forces of darkness in combat. According to his file he had been in the SAS for several years prior so he probably had seen fighting before. Neither had their weapons on them at the moment. They were Viola's escorts, assigned to her specifically for this mission, although they were not the only people that worked for Hellsing here in Nornville. There were six others, all of whom were back at the so-called safe house.

"Alright boys," Viola said confidently looking up at them. "We're good to go."

"Yes, sir," they said in unison.

"Ross, I need to leave you here to help the police chief in there conduct his forces," Viola said. She noted the look of disappointment in his eyes and motioned for them both to follow her outside. After making sure there was no one around or in human earshot, she said softly: "Look Corporal, someone's got to stay at the station and oversee this, yeah? Murray and I, we've both done this before, so it's better if we handle killing this thing."

"Permission to speak freely, sir?" Asked the Corporal. Murray rolled his eyes at the question with that _oh boy, here we go again _look on his face.

"Of course," Viola replied, sounding almost taken aback. "I told you before, you don't have to ask me that. If you want to say something, say it. I'm new at being in charge, so I'll take any input I can get." In truth, she found it a bit embarrassing and flattering that they asked her for permission to speak their minds, even if it was in accord with the chain of command. She didn't know that she was ready to be in charge, to have people under her that were counting on her to get the job done and get them out alive. This mission was not only a test of her skills as a monster hunter, but also of her ability to take charge and lead others. That in itself was rather awkward since both of these men were technically older than her. Having people ask for permission to talk only made her even more nervous about it. Still, her training taught her to keep a level and objective mind, so she did her best not to let it get to her. Whether she felt ready or not, the responsibility was hers, and she took it very seriously.

"I understand my orders, but I've been waiting for this for a while, but I've been here in Nornville helping out with our facility's research into you-know-what. Wouldn't it be better if I got some first hand experience against vampires now since there's one on the way?"

"Sorry, not this time," Viola answered in a serious tone. "Under normal circumstances, possibly. But, this is too dangerous."

"How so?"

"May, I sir?" Interrupted Murray as Viola was about to speak. She wasn't sure how to answer that without offending the soldier. Hopefully Murray would know.

"Yes Captain," Viola acquiesced.

"I think what Miss Nelle is trying to say is that in this case the vampire we're facing may prove to be more of a threat than usual, and trust me Corporal, that's saying something. This one's proven itself to be pretty smart - clever enough to elude the Hellsing Organization multiple times. It's better for the sake of the mission that you stay here and oversee the local police operations. It's also safer for you. It slows us down if we have to worry about watching your back while trying not to get torn to bits by the vampire or its ghouls. This is a job for people with experience."

"Yep," Viola nodded. She used the alias "Nelle" when in public. It was the name of her body's original owner, Ellen, but spelled backwards. Perhaps Walter was right: she really did take after Alucard more than she thought. She asked that Ross, Murray, and all the others use her real name when they were back at headquarters or totally by themselves. "Speaking as a vampire, I can tell you that in a fair fight a normal human wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell even with your track record. Seeing as you're just one human soldier with no experience against even a new vampire, you're better off away from the action. Besides, you're still playing a part, Ross. I'm counting on you to guide the police and update us as the night goes on. Don't worry, like the Captain said, you'll get plenty of thrills and chills soon."

"Yes sir," he agreed, smiling.

"So, are we clear on our jobs then?" She asked.

"Clear," they said.

"Good, then let's get this started and be ready to show our guest some small town hospitality." With that, Viola sent Ross back inside the police station. Viola looked at Murray and the two headed for the car."

"That wasn't half-bad," said the Captain as he hopped into the driver's seat of the black Sudan. "I've been in command before, sir. It's important to make people feel important. It makes them like you, and respect you."

"Thanks," said Viola quickly as she got into the car and immediately assumed her usual form once again. She felt relieved to hear him say that. In spite of his serious exterior, he seemed to be a rather insightful and empathetic man. Granted she hadn't seen him smile even once, but he seemed like he was trying. His encouragement helped to put her mind at ease a little bit. Leading was not her strong suit nor had it ever been. Like Murray, she considered herself somewhat of an empath, but was always trying to help people by serving their needs. That in itself was all the reward she needed and she was willing to do it without regard to herself. It was that same blind trust that allowed Ellen to steal her body from her in the first place.

"May I make a suggestion, sir?" Murray asked.

"Sure!"

"Try and be a bit more assertive. You said 'sorry' when Ross tried to object to your decision. Don't say sorry. You don't have anything to apologize for. You're in charge, so when you give someone a job to do, it's not a suggestion, it's an order."

"Thank you Captain," said Viola, very glad for the help. "I'll definitely remember that next time." That was probably part of her problem with the police officer. She asked for his cooperation at first, when she should have made it clear that it was not a request. It was an order and that her team would be calling the shots for the time being. The car drove away from the station off into the night.

Their base of operations was located within the very same forest where Ellen's house had once stood. As a matter-of-fact, it had been built over the very spot where Ellen's House used to be before it faded into nothing. Unfortunately, to get to it they had to go out of town using the road leading through the forest and make a left about fifteen kilometers out and go about ten more back in to get there, which made getting to and from the place a bit of a drive. Although, now that Viola thought about it, Ellen's house was still a good hour's walk from her old house. The path had to hidden though to keep the place hidden from the public. No one who knew about the road ever used it, according to Ross. Even if they did though, they would find a gated off area blocking their path if the drove far enough. Every now and again people who hunted in that forest still reported strange things happening there, which deterred some people from setting foot in those woods. It was likely though these "ghostly encounters" were fueled only by the superstitious people hearing the lingering local legends of the haunted woods and the witch that snatched away children, because Viola felt very much at peace looking up at the night sky through the green of the tall trees around them on either side. She remembered as a small child that she never played in the forest at night, there was always something about it that rubbed her the wrong way. Some kind of heaviness or pressure in the air as though there was this powerful and dangerous presence that dwelt there. By day the forest felt as it did to her right now: pristine and alive. It had been washed clean of the darkness that had existed there for who-knows-how long. She thought that coming back here would be very hard, but instead she felt like a tiny part of the weight she carried on her shoulders for five years had been lifted. It still felt strange to be back in Nornville, and stranger still to be back in the forest, but it was not as bad as she thought it would be. She was able to relax and do some quiet brooding in the car as they drove back. After they cleared the security gates, they drove some distance further before they finally pulled into the motor court.

Viola took another look at the place. Safe house indeed! Safe mansion was a better description of it. Or even better, safe mansion/occult lore junky's wet dream. It resembled a miniature version of the main Hellsing Estate on the outside. It was roughly the same size as Ellen's house, relatively speaking as the size and the number of rooms in a witch's house was somewhat variable. Viola remembered being amazed by the size of Ellen's home when she first started visiting the witch, but the Hellsing Estate was on another level altogether. On more than one occasion she had gotten lost trying to find someplace in that house. She didn't have time to really get a feel for this place when she first arrived, but Viola knew that most of the rooms on the first floor were dedicated to storing and cataloguing the Hellsing Organization's knowledge into what they had dubbed: demonic sorcery. She wasn't quite sure what that meant as there were in fact several varieties of magic, but it almost certainly had something to do with the "Ellen incident."

Murray parked the car and the pair headed inside the grand double doors of the front entrance. Viola wondered why it was that Sir Integra felt the need to have every building look like it was fit for the ancient Greek Gods or something. It seemed a bit unnecessary to her, but oh well. Not her call, and she wasn't going to complain with all the benefits. She turned back to the forest one more time, looking out at it and taking in the view before she stepped inside and closed the door behind her.

They found themselves in a fairly large foyer with a circular staircase that started at the far wall on either side leading up to the second floor. The room had a large crystal Chandelier hanging down from the ceiling above them with multiple little light bulbs on it. The floor was made of white marble tiles and the rest of the room was largely white in color except for the wooden stair railing and the off colored carpet.

"Alright Captain," she said. "I think it's past time I got a tour of my new home for the next few days."

"Yes, ma'am," he said quickly. "Where do you want to start?"

"Uh, I don't know. I have no idea where anything is. Actually, first off, tell me again what this place really is." Her normal instinct would have been to pose that statement in the form of a question, but she was trying to sound more assertive like he said.

"Well, the purpose of this facility is mainly for storage and cataloguing of the Hellsing Organization's collection of occult knowledge. When someone finds something useful, it gets sent here where we read and analyze it, and then store it. We only keep it if it we think it pertains to demonic sorcery. Otherwise, we send it either back to headquarters or to another secret facility."

"I take it demonic sorcery is the supposed to be witchcraft, right? Ellen's powers?"

"Yes. I'm not the expert, but apparently it can only be performed if someone is given the power by a demon. Something like that. I don't know much else about it."

"I thought that the Hellsing Organization had access to all kinds of knowledge about magic. Alucard was altered with occult knowledge and so was I." She was under the impression that anyone could use magic, and that Ellen's was only so powerful because of the demon and the house. She didn't think it was actually a different form or anything. Not that she knew the first thing about it, since she the memories of Ellen's life had been erased completely from her. There was the brief period in Ellen's body when she had used them, but she was so caught up in her own pain, desperation, and fear at the time that she didn't stop to really understand how it worked.

"Like I said, I wouldn't know about that. I'm just here to run the day to day operations, I don't know all the fine details about the subject. You might want to ask Amelia about that. She's Hellsing's foremost expert on magic of any kind."

"Captain, we're starting the tour... at wherever Amelia is!" said Viola in a voice mimicking that of an overly enthusiastic adventurer about to set off on a quest. As usual, he didn't so much as smile at all at her humor.

He simply said: "She's probably in the room on your right, where she always is." They walked towards the door with a brass sign over the door frame that said: BR-1 in black typewriter style letters.

When they entered, Viola's jaw dropped. In terms of sheer size, this was one of the largest book collections she'd ever seen. There was row upon row of them stacked in shelves like a great library. The came in all shapes and sizes. London had a much larger one that she'd been to on numerous occasions. She also remembered that Ellen's supply of books was technically infinite, but it was smaller in terms of the number of books on display. Viola had never been much of a reader, but ever since that day five years ago she'd gained quite an appetite for brain food, as books were sometimes called. That would be a good way to kill some time once the vampire was dealt with.

"Amelia," Murray called lazily.

"Yes, Captain?" Came an overly cheery high-pitched voice from some distance down the room. Soon a middle-aged woman with shoulder-length curly chestnut brown hair stepped out from behind one of the bookshelves. She wore a white button-up shirt similar to Integra's, but hers had small blue stripes running all the way down from the shoulders. She also wore a long blue skirt under which the bottom of her shirt was tucked. She wore very large circular glasses with thick lenses on her face. Whatever visual impairment she had, it must have been pretty severe.

"Amelia, you remember Miss Viola?"

"Captain, it's only been a couple of hours," she laughed.

"Yeah, sorry we didn't get a chance to talk before, I had to run off to a very boring meeting about my mission," said Viola as she extended her hand. Amelia accepted the handshake eagerly.

"Let me just say again that it's an honor to meet you. Working with these soldier types, you and Alucard are all I ever hear about some days."

"Uh...Um," Viola started, beginning to fiddle with her hair again. It was a bit embarrassing and the woman's enthusiastic tone only made it a bit more overwhelming. "I'm flattered that I'm well known around here," she finally managed to say with a nervous laugh. She decided to change the topic before it got out of hand. "Anyway, I was told that you could tell me what exactly this place is. What it is that Hellsing does here?"

"I guess I should start at the beginning. The reason Hellsing started this facility and the work we do here is, no offense intended, because of you."

"Me?" Viola asked. "You mean me and Ellen swapping bodies five years ago before she stabbed me in the back!" She said it with unintended passion. The mere thought of it brought her nothing but sadness and despair. Even now, it still brought her some anger as well. It wasn't directed at Amelia, but nonetheless it shown through.

"Precisely," Amelia replied nonchalantly ignoring or not noticing Viola's expression. "As you know, Alucard was dispatched five years ago on reports of strange disappearances that had been recorded in the forest around Nornville for nearly two hundred years. Sir Integra sent him out to kill what was thought to be a vampire, but instead he found you inside the house with no eyes and your legs had been chopped off."

"Yeah, and he tried to talk to me, but since Ellen made me drink whatever the hell that was that burned my throat I couldn't say anything." Viola huffed. This topic of conversation was now even worse than the last one. She was reliving the entire incident over in her mind. She trembled and grabbed at her shoulders momentarily in shock, but regained her composure. "He's told me all this before, and I was there. It's a bit uncomfortable talking about it."

"Do you want to stop?"

"No, no. I have to try," she sighed and braced herself. She had to force the words off her tongue, and her lips trembled, but she managed to continue. "He asked me if I wanted to die and have my soul eaten by a demon, or if I wanted to live. I knew one thing, that I didn't want to die like that. I could hear his voice so I reached for it, and here I am." There was a bit more to the story, but it didn't matter at the moment so she didn't say it.

"Yeah. That's about it. The point is, that Alucard's encounter is one of the few that Hellsing has ever had with a demonic sorcerer. Alucard himself said that this was the first time he'd encountered someone like this. That is, someone who is given relative immortality and magic by a demon. The last time that happened was before Sir Integra became head of Hellsing when her father ran the show. There's even a legend that Dr. Abraham Van Hellsing himself battled one and defeated her by cutting her head off with a blessed sword, but we've never been able to confirm it. The fact is, we have very little solid information about them. They're very rare, but according to your own report of the Ellen Incident they're very, very dangerous. It was decided that Hellsing needed to be better equipped to deal with them in the future. So Sir Integra had this place built so that we could gather more information about them, which is what we've been doing for the past three and-a-half years since we finished building it. Unfortunately, the hardest part is separating fact from fiction since aside from your story we have almost nothing to go on."

"Why build it here?" Viola asked. "Why build it on the exact spot where the actual witch's house used to be?"

"I can answer that," Murray interjected. "There are three reasons. The first is that we wanted to make sure nothing like that ever comes back, so we blessed the area where the house used to be and built our place on top of it so that we'd always have eyes out here. Second, Alucard suggested that the forest might hold some answers that we were looking for. He said that darkness like that tends to linger on and that we should stay vigilant. Third, we wanted to monitor Ellen. Even though she's not considered dangerous anymore, there's no reason to assume that her powers wouldn't return for some reason. We use this facility to watch her as long as she stays in Nornville. If at any point her powers do come back, we'll immediately know and we'll destroy her."

"Destroy her?" Viola asked. So just like that? Without a second thought? Somehow that sounded very much like how Ellen would deal with it if the roles were reversed. She wasn't sure how she felt about it. On one hand, good riddance to her. No more people would be hurt, killed, or manipulated by Ellen ever again. But, there was more to it than that. She couldn't understand why, but even after what Ellen had done to her, she still saw the image of the purple haired little girl with the golden eyes and bloody face lying in bed. That bloody, swollen face with those putrid rotten legs and cracked arms. Ellen lied about many things, but her illness and dying body? They were only too real. The pain Viola felt until Alucard turned her was all the proof she needed of that. Seeing that image brought up all sorts of mixed feelings. She'd never forgive Ellen, but even now on some level perhaps she still pitied her. Pity, oh boy would Alucard have a thing or two to say about that. That was who she was though. Vampire or not, she couldn't help but feel sorry for people who knew suffering, and she wanted to try and make their suffering end.

"Yeah, that's the decision that Sir Integra and the rest of the Round Table members agreed upon," said Amelia matter-of-factly. "If Ellen's powers resurface to the point that she's again deemed a threat, we are authorized to search and destroy. Although, the truth is, we don't know exactly how we'd go about doing that."

"Sounds reasonable," Viola lied. "If those are the orders, then so be it. I know that a witch can die if she feels despair. I don't really know how to make that happen though."

"That actually helps us a lot," Amelia exclaimed. "Where did you learn that, or should I ask?"

"I...I..." she couldn't answer that. What Ellen had done, and why she had done it to make her feel despair so that she would die, it still haunted her to this day. She couldn't bare to speak of that horrible day any further at the moment. "Not now," she said weakly, looking down. "Maybe later."

"It's okay, whenever your ready, sir," she said. That was the first time Amelia has used the word sir to address her. Viola had never liked being called sir, ma'am, or miss. She just wanted to be Viola. These titles just didn't appeal to her. However, it was protocol. The vampire took a moment to again get it together before she realized she was forgetting something important.

"Oh, before I forget, just one more question, Amelia. What exactly is the difference between human magic and the magic Ellen used?"

"That's part of the problem," said Amelia. "We really don't completely understand it ourselves. One huge difference is that you can't just use the kind of spells that a true witch or warlock can. The power has to be given to the person by a demonic entity first. Also, the spells they use don't require any vocal incantations or fancy dances like you see on television or anything, a true witch makes a spell happen just by thinking it if all of the prerequisites for using it have been met. They only have to know what the spell needs to work and once that is in place, boom! The confusing part is that we can't really find information on the spells themselves, since they don't have names or anything. then there's divine, like the blessings that paladins and priests use to fight monsters. Then there's the kind that we're more used to dealing with, and some people call it dark or demonic. I think, and this is just speculation, that it's an attempt to copy the stuff a demonic sorcerer can do. It's a bad joke compared to the stuff we think these guys are capable of. Used correctly, it obviously can have crazy results. Yourself and Alucard for example. But normally, it doesn't come even close to the kind of crap a real witch can do. I can't tell you what fundamentally makes it any different in terms of the energies being invoked to use it though."

"Hm," Viola said. Now every single word they spoke reminded her of Ellen's betrayal. She wanted no more of this conversation at all. She needed to distract herself with something for a while. "Thanks for the time, but we have no idea when Ross'll call to tell us that our guest is about to show. We should finish this later. I'm sure there's plenty you'd like to ask me. Murray, come on. I still need to know where my bedroom is now that I think of it." Her voice was shaky even as she tried to make it seem like she was fine. With that she abruptly turned away and headed for the door in a hurry, her shoulders slightly slumped and her head down. Both Murray and Amelia seemed a bit taken aback by the sudden change in attitude. Amelia turned to Murray and smiled as though she knew what he was about to tell her and said:

"Go on, Captain. Don't worry about me, sir. I'd be even worse off if I had to go through what she did. If I may, you might want to let her be for a while once you show her to her room."

He simply nodded and followed behind Viola, but didn't say a word. Once they left the room, she asked him:

"So, which way do we go?" Her voice was still trembling. She was trying with all her might to maintain her appearance, but she couldn't do it. She felt like she needed some time to think this over and gather her thoughts. Or better yet, facing the vampire would offer her a distraction and a chance to blow off some steam. That sounded like fun. _Too bad the undead have no sense of timing,_ she thought. She smiled at her own mental joke. Maybe she was already starting to feel better.

"Up the stairs, and to the right. Last door at the end of the hall." He proceeded to follow her all the way there, and then opened the door and let her in. She quietly thanked him and walked inside. However, before either one of them say anything or do anything, a phone began to ring. Murray went over to it and picked it up while Viola sat down on top of her mahogany coffin and rested her chin in her hands with her elbows on her knees.

"What?" Murray asked suddenly. "No way. You're sure? What do you mean pretty sure, Ross? You'd better be damn sure! Check again, then re-check... Right then. Okay, I'll put her on the line." Then he turned to Viola. "It's for you, ma'am."

She nodded, got to her feet, and hurried over to take the phone.

"What've you got, Ross?" She asked, still feeling downcast as evidenced by her more stoic tone of voice. She listened, and felt a bit better but simultaneously disturbed at the news she received. It seemed the undead sometimes did have a sense of timing. "Tell him to have them pull back and keep out of the way. We'll be over there as soon as we can. Right, Nelle out." She hung up the phone, and a little smile crossed her lips. "Captain, our guests have arrived. Multiple targets coming in from the North and the East roads. Ross said that it's two large groups using some of the sparse woods in that area as cover."

"Ma'am," he nodded, standing at attention immediately. "How do you want to handle it?"

"Well, for starters I think we should play it on the safe side and assume that ghouls aside, the vamp brought a plus-one along for this party."

"More than one vampire? That might explain why they've been one step ahead of main operations in London."

"I've got an idea," Viola said, her voice trailing off a bit. "I've heard about you from Walter and Sir Integra, Captain. Apparently you're quite the talented vampire killer yourself. I can probably deal with these guys myself, but I can't be in two places at once. I think you and I should handle this together. We'll split into two groups. You and another soldier, maybe Hughes, go and handle the guys coming from the North. I'll take the East."

"Sounds good, ma'am," Murray said calmly without much change in his serious expression. Viola decided at that moment that one way or another she'd get a smile out of him one way or another before her time in Nornville was done. "I'll just need to grab my weapons and some special tools and then we can head out."

"Nah," she said. "You do that and head out without me. I can move much faster without the car. With any luck I'll be finished fast and come join you. I'd love to see what Hellsing's 'Explosive Exorcist' can do. But, don't wait up for me."

"Huh? Oh, right. I forgot you vampires can move super fast."

"Actually, I can fly also," she said. "I didn't earlier because it draws too much attention sometimes, if you know what I mean."

"Yes ma'am," he said. Still no grin appeared on his face.

"Okay, Captain," Viola began with an almost mischievous smile. "Let's go fight some monsters!" She opened the door and stepped out into the hall. Oh God, did she need this right now. She felt better knowing that soon they would stop these monsters and put an end to their path of destruction. Part of her was also hoping that this would be a good fight as well. She really needed to cut loose and let all her frustration, fear, anger, and sadness out.

Viola's body then suddenly began to emit a faint red aura as a writhing mass of red and black shadows billowed out from her trench coat and engulfed her body. It was as though she had become the shadows save for her eyes and teeth. Its edges almost looked like the outline of tiny wings. Then it erupted into a swarm of black bats that flew down the hall, beating their wings and flying in perfect unison, screeching and shrieking as they went. They fluttered and glided at lightning speeds over the steps and to the door, which flew open without warning as though some invisible hand had forced it open. The swarm flew right out the door and out into the night...


	5. Chapter IV-Blessed are Bullets N

**Okay, I'm not going to lie. I may or may not have been a bit hung over when I was editing this yesterday morning. Looking at it again I decided to re-upload it with a few corrections. I didn't make any changes to the chapter's story itself.**

Chapter IV - Blessed are the Bullets N' Bombs

Two people, a young man and a woman, made their way slowly down a dimly lit street side-by-side, not caring at all that they were in the middle of the road. The man had long light brown hair that went straight down his back and amber colored eyes. He was wearing a white short-sleeved v-neck shirt and a dark blue vest over it with a pair of matching jeans. The woman had straight dark red hair tied back in a ponytail and snake-like green eyes under a pair of pupil specks. She pulled out a cigarette and lit it before proceeding forward. She was dressed in a sleeveless black dress with a long flowing and black sandals. She had on a pair of dark brown leather bracers that covered both of her forearms. Behind them followed about twenty more monstrous creatures with glowing purple eyes, shuffling and shambling along, moaning and groaning as they went. Looked like people at first, but upon closer inspection they would seem much like zombies. Most of them were covered in blood and horrendous gaping wounds, they reeked with the stench of rot and decay, and their putrid gray, blue, green, and purple flesh looked like something only a maggot would find in the least bit attractive. Unlike zombies, these had teeth that looked like miniature versions of those found in a great white shark's mouth. Though they were slow, they were organized and following behind the two people ahead of them in some sort of marching formation. The main difference between them and a horde of zombies was that they were capable of learning, understanding, and following orders. They retained some of their sentience.

"Did they really have to send shorty along with us?" Asked the man. "He's cocky and reckless. He's just as likely to get us all killed as he is to help us succeed."

"He's right, you know," answered the woman. "You worry too much. If you're too frighty, you'll fuck up the mission just as easily. I'll admit, he's definitely cocky and reckless, but he _is _the strongest out of the three of us. His job is to keep the Hellsings' pet vampire occupied long enough to acquire the target and get out of here. He can handle that much at least."

"Hmph," he said. "There's still the other Hellsing agents stationed here, you know?"

"Oh please," she laughed. "There all humans, and there's what, like eight of them? Our ghouls will mop them up without even breaking a sweat. They might have holy ammunition, but in the end, a human is still just a human."

"True," shrugged the male. "Still, I can't help but feel like somethin's not right. Why all this trouble for one meat sack?"

"Who knows?" She asked rhetorically. "If the boss wants some human from this backwater place, that's his business. We're just soldiers after all. It's our job to follow the orders, not ask questions. Besides, he said we get to kill anyone we see along the way. No witnesses."

"Have you seen anyone yet?" He asked, sounding increasingly more frustrated.

"Stop your complaining! They probably put out a warning in advance so that people would stay indoors or something!" She shouted. He immediately held his tongue and looked a bit startled. Then she raised her nose and sniffed the air before turning her head to the side so she could more easily hear what was going on. "If you must know, there's a group of humans coming around the next block up ahead. Guess they decided to ignore the authorities. Shall we indulge? We shouldn't have to worry about the target hearing us, we're still a little ways off."

"We shall," he replied as he licked his chops. They smirked, revealing their teeth, in particular their pointed canines. Their eyes flashed red in the darkness as they drew out their weapons. The man pulled a pair of shiny chrome-colored pistols out of his vest. They were .357 IMI Desert Eagles with silencers on them to reduce noise and muzzle flash. she pushed a raised area on the underside of her bracer and suddenly a pair of twenty-two centimeter long wrist-mounted blades with serrated edges on both sides sprung out from slits at the very front over the backs of her hands.

The two began to walk a bit faster. The hideous monsters behind them started to sniff the air and make various groaning and growling noises. Like piranhas responding the sound of an injured bird's struggles in the water, they all began to swarm faster as a five hapless young teenage guys walked around the street corner.

"You want em?" Asked the man. "To be honest, I'm not really that hungry right now."

"You're too kind, my sweet," she replied, grinning at him fondly. "I'll save one for you in case you change your mind. And a couple of chew toys for our pets." He stood back and held out his hand, signaling to the creatures to wait there. He kept his guns out, and casually leaned against a street sign. The woman hid her hands behind her back and, with a very subtle and seductive catwalk, headed right for the kids.

"Hello, boys," she said in a dulcet, soft, and deep voice when she got close. They all stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of the woman moving towards them. "Anyone know a place where a girl can get a decent drink in this town?"

"Uh, yeah," started one of them. He started to turn his body to the side and raise his hand to indicate a direction before saying wherever is was, but the words never left his mouth. Instead, a gasp followed by a gurgling moan escaped his lips as she sank one of her blades into his gut and turned her wrist back and forth to cut deeper. Blood flowed over the blade and onto her hand as he heaved. From the angle they were standing his friends couldn't be entirely sure what was happening until she wrenched the blade out of him and he started to collapse. His knees didn't quite hit the ground before she knelt down and slit him through right at the bottom of both his ankles with one clean stroke of her blade, severing his feet from his legs and preventing him from getting up as he bled out on the street.

"Oh shit!" One of the others shouted before he turned to run away.

"What the fuck?!" Another screamed, but remained frozen in place by shock and fear. Neither one of them took another step, or another breath. She moved at inhuman speeds and decapitated the guy trying to run away effortlessly while she stabbed the other one right under the ribcage. She angled her blade upward so it pierced through his lungs and heart leaving part of her arm sticking out of him with the tip of her blade jutting out of his back just under his shoulder blade. He let out a garbled cry that sounded like he might be begging God to help him or something, and then fell limp on her arm as the head of his poor friend rolled past her feet.

"Fuck!" Shouted one as he pulled a switch blade out of his pocket. "What the hell are you doing, you crazy bitch?!" He came at her with the knife, but she caught it in between her middle an index fingers without even batting an eye. Then she bared her teeth, which suddenly all became pointed and sharp like her canines although not nearly as long, and pulled him towards her. She clasped her free hand over his mouth to muffle the scream as she sank her teeth into the flesh of his forearm. Blood spurted everywhere as the power behind her bite and her razor-sharp oral cutlery set sliced right through skin, muscle, and fat. He howled in pain but no one could here him anyway with her hand over his mouth. She chewed down again, this time, her teeth hit the bone in his forearm and bit right through it along with the remaining scraps of flesh. His shredded arm fell and hit the ground with a dull and then she silenced him for good by biting deep into the side of his neck. He trembled for a moment before he fell silent and she dropped him to the ground now completely drained of blood.

"Hey," said the male vampire casually. "You missed one." He motioned with his gun to a guy running up the road like a madman. In the low light he was barely visible to human eyes as he was so far away. She turned and looked over at him.

"Take him down," she said quickly as the corpse of the teen started to twitch beneath her. The one she injured first was still groaning on the ground a meter away. "But, don't kill him yet. He might know the girl we're supposed to find is."

"What makes you say that? We know where her house is so why does it matter?"

"That doesn't mean she's there," she pointed out. "Let's just be sure. You're always worrying about every little detail anyway. This town's pretty tiny, I'm sure they all know each other around here."

"Good point," he conceded. He raised his pistols and stood there for a moment. Then he pulled the trigger once on each producing a muffled clicking popping noise as they fired. The bullets raced towards their target fleeing for his life, and hit him directly in the back of both knees. One of the bullets went all the way through, nearly taking a large piece of his leg with it. The poor bastard fell to the ground and rolled onto his side, crying aimlessly into the night.

"Get knee-capped, bitch!" He laughed. He immediately raced after the runner, and within two seconds was standing directly over him. The woman remained with the others and began to drain the first person she attacked to silence his moaning. She then retracted her blades once she finished with him.

The man knelt and put one of his guns to the kid's head.

"I know your legs feel like shit right now kid," he started. "But, try and stay with me." The kid moaned incoherently so he pressed down with the gun on his temple. "I said, listen up!" The kid reduced his sobbing and looked directly at him. "Good. Now, answer my questions, and I'll let you get out of here in mostly one piece. That's all you have to do. Do you know a girl named Viola? She'd be about yay tall, eighteen years old, blonde hair, green eyes?"

The teenager, still whimpering, nodded slowly.

"Do you know her personally, or just by name?"

"Personally. What do you want with her?" He groaned in misery.

"That's not important. Do you know where she is now?"

"What?"

"Do. You. Know. Where. She. Is. Right. Now?"

"I think she's at her house."

"You're sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. We invited her and a couple of other girls to come with us, but she said she too tired and too busy."

"That's all I needed. Thank you." With that he pulled the trigger and splattered the kid's brains on the street before he even knew he'd been deceived. The ghouls began to scavenge the leftovers of the woman's slaughter until in a matter of moments they had reduced the horrific scene to nothing but bloodstains and scattered bones. They may not have been fast walkers, but they were very quick eaters.

"She's at her house," said the man as he rejoined her.

"Good, then let's go." Then she turned to face the ghouls. "Alright gents, listen up. Your job is simple. Move through the streets, knock down doors, find people and fuck em' up while the two of us grab the girl! Let's roll!" She raised her hand to snap her fingers and signal to the ghouls to carry out her orders, but her super sensitive ears detected something of note and she hesitated. It was the sound of a motor, a small vehicle, possibly a motorcycle speeding towards them. "Hm. Sounds like we have company."

"Tch," the man sighed. "You wasted too much time playing with your food. You should've just slit their throats and then we would've gotten moving before now."

"Can it!" She snapped. Then she turned towards the ghouls again. "What are you idiots staring at? Get to work!" She snapped her fingers. The order had been given.

The ghouls began to separate, but suddenly out of nowhere two small cylindrical metal canisters landed amidst the throng of walking corpses. They bounced between them, one of them rolling up to a ghoul's foot. The creature turned and picked it up.

"Grraagh?" Then suddenly it burst with a tiny flash of light in its hand and a thick grey smoke began to spew out of one end of the cylinder. At the same time, the second one also detonated, and a thick cloud of smoke quickly began to envelop the horde of creatures and their masters.

"What the?!" Cried the female vampire before she broke into a coughing fit. Suddenly, she felt a very sharp stinging sensation all over her exposed skin. She and her companion both immediately used their inhuman strength to jump high out of the smoke cloud and land some distance away from it. Both of their pale hides now had what looked like mild acid burns on them that were still steaming.

"Owww, fuck!" The man yelled as he looked at the welts forming on his skin before coughing again. "What the hell was that? A smoke bomb?"

"Yeah! A smoke bomb with fucking holy water or some shit in it! Look at our ghouls!" The man turned to see what looked like...a skeleton step out of the smoke cloud before falling to dust. The chorus of moans coming from inside the cloud dwindled as the smoke faded. Only six of them managed to stumble out of the cloud intact, and two of them practically fell to pieces on the spot.

"Son of a bitch!" Cursed the male when suddenly a man riding black motorcycle sped around the corner and drifted sideways at ridiculous speeds straight at them. He leapt off the bike and rolled across the ground as it barreled towards them. The two vampires leapt aside with ease in spite of their discomfort but the bike's weight and momentum easily knocked the four remaining ghouls flying before it fell on its side. Before they could rise again, a loud and powerful gunshot annihilated one's head. Three more shots quickly followed and eradicated the remaining ghouls before they could do any further harm.

"Nice work, Hughes!" said the bike rider into a black earpiece as he got to his feet. He turned to face the vampires. "I don't know whether you two are ballsy, or just plain stupid." He had crew-cut ginger hair and hazel eyes not to mention a body that looked like it was chiseled out of marble. He had a serious, but not necessarily angry expression on his face.

"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" Shouted the woman. The lenses on her glasses were reflecting a bright light off of them from somewhere nearby, however strangely there was no such light in the area capable of causing that. Then she saw his uniform and the firearm strapped to his back. "Ah! You're with Hellsing, aren't you?"

"Indeed," he said in a gritty British accent. "I am Captain Daniel Murray of the Hellsing Organization. But, you two can just call me: your executioner." The two vampires looked stunned and turned to face one another. They knew that name.

With that he raised two more of the cylindrical smoke grenades to his mouth. With his thumbs on the safety levers, he pulled the safety pins out with his teeth before he tossed one towards each vampire before running back a bit. The grenades landed between himself and the monsters and detonated before the two could attack him, blocking them off with a wall of smoke.

"He thinks that a couple of smoke grenades with holy water mixed in will stop us," laughed the female vampire as she pressed her bracers and the knives sprung forth again. "How adorable!"

"Arial!" Started the man. "By your foot, look out!"

A small silvery metallic object rolled past her foot. She turned and leapt ran to the side just as a small but powerful explosion flared up with a loud bang practically right where she was standing.

"Thanks for the save, Lance," she said as she joined him. Suddenly two more grenades bounced out of the smoke near them.

"Fuck!" Lance exclaimed as they narrowly avoided another explosion although the shockwave did jolt them a bit.

"You draw his attacks, and I'll slice n' dice him," Arial said.

"No. Remember the mission. I can handle this guy. He's just one measly little man, even if he is Hellsing's 'Explosive Exorcist.' Go capture the target."

She looked like she was going to overrule him, but then she nodded and tried to run off down the street. Three more bombs came flying right at her out of the fading smoke cloud, but Lance raised one of his pistols and shot all three in mid-air, detonating them before they could get close to her, enabling her to escape. Several gunshots rang out, but none of the bullets found their mark in her this time.

Murray casually stepped through the dying smoke and face the vampire. He wasn't an idiot after all. That woman had those blades on her wrists, so she liked close combat. There was no way, even with her super speed that she would get close enough to him. Her skill set was a poor match for his, although being that he was only human his athletic abilities and senses were a poor match for hers so he was thankful they chose to air on the side of caution. Obviously they weren't just here to make trouble. They were here for something or someone in particular. He was curious as to what, but at the moment stopping them from getting it was more important.

"Captain?" Came a voice over the earpiece. "Should I pursue the woman, over?"

He pushed down on it once and said: "Negative. She's already got too much headway on us especially in the time it would take to get you down from that church bell tower and get in the car. Besides, I may need some support fire. Prepare to-" his command was cut off as a bullet from one of Lance's pistols grazed the earpiece and took it right off his ear while shattering it to pieces without so much as scratching Murray.

"Sorry, you've used up all your free minutes," said the vampire with a smirk. Murray didn't even flinch.

"Hmph," Murray grumbled. "You're going to regret shooting the earpiece instead of my head."

"We'll see. So you're The Grenadier, Hellsing's Explosive Exorcist."

"Who are you?" Murray asked gruffly.

"Lance," he said. "That's what everyone at work calls me. My real name is something I keep between myself and my girl. Anyway, this is an unexpected honor. What the hell is a guy like you doing in this backwater place? We were told the only person of note here would be one of you guys' vampires."

_He knows about Viola?_ He thought in surprise. _He probably shouldn't have given that away. __W__hat else do they know? _"You talk too much," Murray responded gruffly. He suddenly dropped a small piece of metal shaped like a P to the ground out of his left hand and lightly tossed a small yellow cylinder towards the gunman. He then immediately turned and covered his ears as a blinding flash of light and an ear-piercing noise.

He turned to see that the vampire had also turned away, but was holding his ears and shouting curses in pain. Murray loved those stun grenades. Against a creature of the night in close proximity, they effectively turned its own super-senses against it. The effect was debilitating enough against human eyes and ears. Against a vampire when it actually hit them, it could tip the odds completely in his favor for a short while. Since he was quick enough to turn and get a bit of distance only the sound had effected this one, but that was all he needed. Maybe he didn't need the support fire after all.

He reached behind his back and pulled the weapon he had strapped there. It looked a bit like a revolver but with a collapsible stock and an absolutely massive 6-round chamber. In fact, it more resembled an assault rifle save the chamber. There was an octagonal grill over part of the barrel and it overall the weapon was an army green color. His had a black reflex sight with a green lens sitting on top of it. It was not a gun in the strict sense, but a grenade launcher. An M32 Milkor MGL. Sometimes it was known as playfully as "The Six-Pack Attack" because of its ability to unleash all six of its 40 millimeter grenades at a target in under three seconds. He fired the weapon, and it made a very quiet popping ka-thunk sound as one of the six grenades shot right at Lance and struck the ground just near his feet, setting off a blast considerably more powerful than the previous bombs he used. Fortunately for him he minimized the destruction to buildings since they were in an area near two open plots of land and a small park. However, across the street some shop owners would find themselves more than a little perplexed as to why their windows had been blown out during the night.

Suddenly a dull shot rang out and Murray staggered backwards. He looked stunned and surprised and he clutched his chest. Then another, and another, and over and over again until he collapsed. A slightly bedraggled Lance stepped out from the shadows of some trees nearby and walked toward Murray where he lay on the ground.

"Well he's done, but I think I'll put one in his head just to be sure," the vampire said calmly to himself. He put his hands on his ears again for a moment and closed his eyes. He was still suffering a bit from the stun grenade. Then he dropped the empty mags from his pistols and reloaded them.

Then another, much louder gunshot sounded and Lance yowled in pain as part of his left shoulder was very nearly ripped off by a high-caliber bullet that grazed him. Even just a graze from a blessed silver bullet was enough to cause incredible discomfort to undead. His vest was torn, and there was a deep and bloody gash, but he could still make full use of his arm.

"Who the?" He turned, wincing, to where the shot came from. He looked all over, and then he saw it. A church several blocks away with a large bell tower or something. His vampire eyes could easily see a second Hellsing soldier sitting there with a very powerful sniper rifle on a tripod. He was reloading at the moment. Then Lance heard an all-too-familiar ka-thunk from behind him and instinctively dove aside to avoid the incoming grenade, but this time the shockwave knocked him backwards while he was still in the air He went flying into the park and crashed into a wooden bench which splintered to pieces. He was almost instantly back on his feet, and looking both surprised and more than a little annoyed.

"Nice shooting," Murray stated as he took aim again. "Any one of those would've been fatal if I hadn't been wearing an armored vest. I'd recommend you aim for my head, or better yet use armor-piercing or explosive shells next time, but in order for that to mean anything there would have to be a next time." He fired again at the vampire who responded by shooting the grenade in mid-air and detonating it in between them. Three more came in rapid succession through the smoke of the first, but Lance shot all of them before they could get quite close enough. He also kept moving around to make it difficult for the sniper to get a beat on him. He zipped across the park to try to shoot Murray in the head from the side, but instead had to turn and retreat when he saw Murray casually toss three more yellow stun grenades at him with his free hand. Where the hell did he keep pulling these things from?

"Dammit!" He raged when he saw the bombs.

Murray watched as the vampire wretched in pain from the awful ringing in his ears once the grenades exploded. This time, the flash also partially blinded him since he forgot to close his eyes when he turned away. He immediately turned out the revolver and reloaded five of the six chambers with 40 millimeter rounds that had the same yellow covering as his hand stun grenades. Then he pulled a very bright silvery 40 millimeter grenade from his belt loop and loaded it into the last spot. It had a white crucifix and text that read: _Behold the Wrath of God!_ written on one side.

"Consider this your ticket to Hell, monster!" He shouted at the vampire as he fired the first five grenades at Lance. He tried to shoot them, but he was still dazed and disoriented and couldn't aim properly. They detonated when they hit the ground with a very bright light before scattering into smaller flashes like miniature white fireworks.

"I can still smell you, you bastard!" Lance hissed in an act of defiance. He pointed his guns right at him, and then came a loud bang.

The vampire went toppling forward as a sniper round hit him straight in the gut. He blood splattered from the wound and his mouth as he fell, and the last thing he knew was a sudden an ear shattering noise and intense heat that lasted only a second. The last thing his impaired eyes saw, was blinding gold light and then darkness as Murray's grenade blew him to pieces. With a flash of white light, a gold aura erupted from the grenade as it detonated and covered everything in a ten meter radius stopping just in short of Murray himself. He didn't move an inch. It quickly dissipated into a grey and gold cloud of smoke that wafted away in the breeze.

"That's it for you, Lance," Murray said as a he pulled out a cigar from his pocket. A skull covered in blue flames bounced out of the smoke and landed at Murray's feet. He bent down and held his cigar out to the tiny flames and lit it with them. He stood up, took a long hit from it, and then kicked the skull away and turned towards his motorcycle. As he walked, he exhaled the smoke in a ring shape before taking another hit as the skull collapsed into ash. He waved his hand up high as a signal to Hughes. He was almost certainly watching through his scope for some sort of sign. He'd understand what it meant - it was time to hunt down the other one. There were two groups of ghouls, and likely at least three vampires in total. Murray didn't even concern himself with the other group. _I almost feel bad for the other ones,_ he thought. _I've heard enough stories about Alucard to know that if Miss Viola is anything like him, there won't be much left after she gets done with them. If she hasn't already killed them all, that is._

As Murray prepared to rejoin Hughes and pursue the woman Lance called Arial, Viola sat atop the roof of a long abandoned farm-house looking up at the sky. It was on a road that diverted from the main road into town in this direction and it was likely that the enemy would use it to conceal their movements. She was surprised it was even still here. This building and the land had been left rotting and alone since before she was born. What happened to the family who owned it was a mystery. The last time they had been seen or heard from was twenty-five years prior when they went for a picnic in the woods near her home, so the story went. Viola had her own theory as to what might have become of them after her own experiences. All that was left of them was this place, slowly being reclaimed by nature. She looked up at the gorgeous full moon, allowing herself a moment to just enjoy the night. There were never this many visible stars in the night sky over London and rarely anywhere else she traveled. She'd almost forgotten what it looked like.

"What a beautiful night!" She mused. _Master's probably hungry right now, nights like these always make him hungry, _she thought with a smile. _I could use a bite to drink right now myself._ Then she caught a whiff of something in the air._  
_

"Ah, bout' time," she said as she sat up. She leapt off her perch and glided down to the brush-covered field near the road just as a ghoul came lurching over the hill. Then another, and another, and another until about thirty of them were in full view. They were marching in formation like a group of soldiers, and most of them were armed with guns of various types. Strangely, there was no sign of the vampire, but Viola could sense its presence close by. It was watching everything and waiting.

"I know you're there somewhere," she said turning to the hill. The vampire was probably waiting just over the rise. "I'm gonna put this as delicately as I can. Y-"

"Take her out, kiddies," came a child's voice followed by a snap.

Before she could finish, a bullet hit her right between the eyes and silenced her. Then the rest of the ghouls opened fire and a storm of bullets buffeted and barraged Viola relentlessly. She just stood there as the gunfire literally shredded her body until they ran out of ammo and she collapsed into the dry soil, creating a small cloud of dust and burned gunpowder. The entire right side of her face had been almost completely pulverized into a bloody mess, she was practically cut in half right above the hip, large chunks of her arms were missing, and her body was riddled by entry and exit wounds from the gunshots to the point that a piece of swiss cheese might have been jealous of all the holes. Her clothes were tattered and torn apart and saturated in a blood puddle as it spread out from her mangled body.

"You gotta be kidding me!" came the voice again with a decidedly arrogant tone. A boy who didn't look older than nine or ten leapt over the hill and landed just behind the ghouls. "Come on! Is that really all you had? Man, talk about a letdown!" He had short but wild black hair and dark blue eyes with a mischievous twinkle in them. He was wearing a grey tweed suit with a blue very dark blue bow tie around his neck, tucked under the collar of his sky blue button-up shirt. He had brown leather dress shoes to finish off his attire. He looked like a miniature business man, and it would've been adorable if it weren't for the fact that he had a group of rotting corpses standing in front of him. All of them stared down at the mess at the bottom of the slope for a moment and then he turned to leave, looking rather annoyed. Before he could take another stepped, he heard something. It sounded like chuckling.

"You have terrible manners, you know that, you little punk?" Echoed Viola's voice with a playful laugh on the wind. The boy wheeled around and what he saw made his eyes widen in surprise. Viola's remaining eye began to glow very bright red, the outline of her hair began to distort and change, and was she...smiling? The blood stopped spreading across the ground and instead flowed back towards her body. Her injuries started to repair themselves as the blood flowed back into them and a faint red glow appeared around her body as she suddenly rose back onto her feet. "You interrupted me in the middle of a thought and now I forgot what I was gonna say," she said in her usual cheery voice which was downright creepy considering her ravaged form at the moment. Then, in a slightly more sinister tone, she said: "Shame on you." Her most horrendous wounds and the tears in her clothing filled back in and closed themselves as though they had never happened in the first place. Muscles grew over her exposed ribs and skin over them. Her jaw and face healed and a new eye materialized in the black hole on the right side of her head. She reached for the left side of the interior of her trench coat with her right hand, and pulled out her new shotgun, the Jinshu Long.

_Time to see what this bad boy can do!_ Viola thought in anticipation. She had already loaded it with a full compliment of the standard silver shot shells while she was waiting for these guys to show up. It was a very heavy weapon for its size, but her inhuman strength made it seem light as a feather. She raised it to her hip and pressed the trigger. The result was anything but standard. With a mighty bang she brought down two of the ghouls instantly. One had its entire head blasted to bits, and the other was knocked off its feet by the force of impact from being so close and it slammed right into another, causing a domino effect and knocking six of them to the ground. Tiny silver pellets hit it in the chest, and one or more of them found its heart since it immediately collapsed to dust on top of the others.

"Sheeeeyiiit!" She exclaimed in surprise at the firepower. "Ohoho, you beauty!" She pumped it again as the ghouls and the vampire started to regroup, and fired another shot. This time she destroyed and the several others fell to the ground. Then she pumped it and shot again as they tried to swarm her. She killed two more with the next shot, and one of them literally got blown to bits by a combination of the silver's effects and the force of impact at the same time. Blood and flesh went everywhere before it too became ash like all the rest. Again and again she blasted them away, and by the time she had to reload, there were less than half the number that started. Oddly, they weren't trying to reload their own guns, they were trying to charge her. The child vampire silently watched at the top of the hill, with an almost amused look on his face. Viola tried to nail him a couple of times once she reloaded, but one of his ghouls always took the hit for him-that little bastard. He was going to pay for what he'd done to these poor souls. It wasn't long before she had successfully laid all of them to rest, taking out the last one with a shot that turned its head to mush. It sank to its knees, and fell forward and turned to dust before it fully hit the ground.

"Nicely done," the kid said, clapping as he approached her. He still had that smug grin on his face. "I'd expect nothing less from one of Hellsing's vampires."

She frowned as she looked at him. "Why bother using them if you expected me to kill them?"

"I dunno," she shrugged. "Get you to burn through some ammo, or see what weapon you had, maybe see what you could do? I don't know. I guess I just did it for a few shits n' giggles."

"Scumbag," she thought aloud. Now she was going to annihilate this kid. He turned those people into ghouls and sent them after her because he wanted some entertainment? _I hope you enjoyed your show, cause now you really pissed me off!_ "You knew I'd be here. How?" She asked him with a more harsh tone.

"Does it matter?"

"Maybe. Maybe not."

"Since I'm going to kill you, I'd say it doesn't matter to you at all."

"You're not off to a very good start with that. Who are you anyway?"

"My name's Algernon, like the schmuck from the Oscar Wilde play. Algernon Lierad. Please, call me Algy. Everyone does. Let me just say, it's a pleasure to meet you in person, Viola."

She nearly took a step back in astonishment. There was no one besides the people in Hellsing, The Round Table, and The Queen herself who knew her true identity. To the rest of the world, Viola was a human living in Nornville. Nelle was her name as far as the rest of the planet was concerned. How did this vampire know who she really was? What else did he know? "How do you know that name?" She asked quickly._  
_

"That's not the only thing I know about you," he said, still smirking. "There's all sorts of stories floating around about you. They call you Alucard's progeny, the Violet Demon, among other things. I'm not gonna say anything more, because like I said, it doesn't really matter. Let's just say that I almost felt like crying when then they told me about you. Now here you are parading around with the great Alucard. Of course, you're no Alucard. He's what all of us aspire to become, in't he? Even us immortals gotta have goals."

"Immortal? There's no such thing as immortals, to use his turn of speech."

"Yeah," he said mockingly as he rolled his eyes. "You're right. All of us'll probably kick the bucket sometime. For you, that's tonight. See, I don't just know you, Viola. I was created, altered a shit-ton of times, and trained to kill both you and Alucard. I'm better than you in every way. I was made to be better than you."

"That's a bold statement," she said with a smile of her own. "But, don't bark if you can't bite, kid."

"Oh please!" He laughed. "I'm built to be able to take down Alucard, and rumor has it without him around you couldn't fight your way out of a cardboard box!"

"Then I guess it's a good thing you're stuck in the box with me," she shrugged. Truthfully this cocky kid was starting to drive her nuts at this point. Kill Alucard, indeed! This guy had some knowledge of the two of them, but not as much as he wanted her to think he did. If he did, he would know that one does not simply kill Alucard.

"Not bad," he laughed as something slid out his sleeve into his hand. "You got me there. I gotta admit, it's a shame to kill someone so smokin' hot though, in't it?"

"Excuse you?!" She asked, completely taken aback. _Did I just get complimented/hit on, by a...a nine year old?! What the fuck? Seriously? Wow, this just got really awkward. What do I even say to that?_ "I don't know whether I should be flattered, or completely offended by that considering your current looks."

He chuckled. Then without another word, he flipped the object in his hand around, revealing it to be a fair-sized dagger, but not one like she had ever seen before. It had a simple black handle, but the blade itself was made in such a way that its edge was wave-like to the tip. It was almost certainly a silver blade, but its design looked like it was meant to be as painful as it was deadly.

"Not to point out the obvious cliché here, but you brought a knife to a gunfight," she said, raising the Jinshu and pumping it again. She still had three shots left, and he wasn't nearly close enough to be a problem with that thing.

"True, but this is a pretty badass knife," he retorted. Then he charged her straight on without another word.

She opened fire, but he predicted her shot and timed his evasion perfectly, completely avoiding every single pellet and continuing towards her. That was impressive, even for a vampire. It required precise timing and training to dodge a bullet even with enhanced speed. This could turn out to be fun after all. He leapt to an impressive height, sailing directly over her to land right behind her.

_Predictable,_ she thought, utilizing her own superhuman reflexes to ready her weapon while simultaneously turning to face him. When he landed, she shot at him again, but he easily dodged her and zipped directly past her right with his knife-arm extended to the side, cutting a painful slash under her arm as he raced by. She turned and tried to follow him as he ran around, but he was quick and very agile. The fact that he was a smaller target than normal wasn't helping her either.

She couldn't match his movements with her own as he was darting in and out, cutting or jabbing her, and then running around like a ninja, so she decided just to follow her training and watch him. An opening would present itself if she was patient so she could get him with the last shot in the Jinshu. Besides, his slash-and-dash style of slicing her open and backing off continuously wasn't going to get him anywhere. He could do that until the end times if he wanted. Although, there was something about that knife. The wounds it was inflicting were particularly painful and were taking longer to heal than normal. It was tough to stop the bleeding. _So that's what he meant when he said it was badass. It's either blessed or magic_.

The two continued their dance for several more moments, with Viola trying to find an opening she could use to shoot him, and he continuously outpacing her and slicing her again and again. No matter what she did, he was just too quick when he was this close. She needed to put some distance between them or this was going to take forever. He leapt for her in a frontal attack, with his dagger ready to pierce her heart. His blade never reached her. He tried to avoid her shot by angling himself to the side, but this time a few of the silver shots bore their way into his flesh. Two of them hit him in the head. The sheer firepower of the Jinshu was such that even an indirect hit knocked him straight backwards. He landed a couple of meters away on his back, but immediately looked up and smirked as his wounds closed. He pointed the knife at her and then suddenly some invisible force hit her in the chest and sent her flying backwards like she had been shot out of a cannonball as it stabbed right through and out of her back. She fell to the ground hard on her shoulder very near the abandoned house when it finally stopped. A rotting wooden plank fell from the side of the house and landed on her head with a thunk.

"Ow," she grunted as she knocked it off and got to her feet. "Okay, so it's magic," she said to herself, looking down at the hole in her chest as it closed. This was definitely not the sort that Ellen had used, but not one that was unfamiliar to her either. It was incredibly rare, but sometimes a vampire she and Alucard were sent to kill would have a weapon with some kind of spell on it to give it some extra _umph_. In this case, it allowed him to still stab his enemies with great force at insane distances. She didn't have time to contemplate it though as her enemy was coming again. She reached into the other side of her trench coat and pulled out the NV-89, her other new acquisition. She barely had enough time to pull the slide and flip the safety before Algy jabbed in her direction from about ten meters away. This time it caught her in the stomach. He guided her up with the knife in his hand, and then pulled it back, which seemed to retract it. Before she fell however, he then sliced through the air, cleaving her in half, but not before she managed to get off several shots at him. Unfortunately, the force of his cutting attack broke her concentration preventing her from getting the bullets to go where she wanted them to go.

He didn't expect her to shoot, and paid for his lack of preparedness when he took a bullet to the torso, one tore a piece out of his thigh, and one hit him square in the chest...right above his heart. The silver exploding rounds did massive damage, and he let out a loud yell in pain as he stumbled back, but it wasn't enough to kill him yet. It might slow him down for a while, but he appeared to have pretty decent regeneration so he would eventually heal.

He let out a mad yell and started slicing the knife through the air like a crazy person, and it started to cut her into pieces, and then into smaller pieces, and then into even smaller pieces which scattered and fell across the field, and her smashed through part of the old roof of the house that had already caved in a bit.

"Ow, son of a..." Algy growled in pain. "Fuckin' bitch! I hope you're already dancing on hot coals in hell for this!" He patted his hand on the entry wound in his stomach. "Stupid cunt. Huh? What the fuck?" He watched in surprise as what looked like trails of black mist gathering at the door of the house and slipping through the cracks underneath it. "Still kicking after that? Jesus! How many times do I have to kill you before you'll stay dead?" He began to limp toward the house, and when he through open the door and walked in, he found himself in a very dark and creepy place. The place was covered in dust and cobwebs, and the house had been largely stripped of everything but the house itself long ago so it was basically a wide open room with a few pieces of large furniture that were damaged or too heavy to be easily removed. At the center, by a small staircase was Viola, on her hands and knees panting. She had completely reformed herself but she still seemed a bit winded.

"Hiya," she said, glancing over at him with a smile of feigned happiness. "Glad you could make it."

He attempted to slash at her with the knife's powers, but as his arm reached about a quarter of the way through his swing, a single gunshot knocked the knife from his grip and put a very large hole through his hand. The knife flew across the room and hit a wall with its hilt and fell to the ground somewhere.

"Oww, God dammit!" He howled as blood spewed from his ruined appendage. He turned and gazed angrily at her, but she kept smiling back at him.

"You were kicking me around pretty good with that thing," Viola said, lowering the NV and standing up again. "Even without the knife, there's no way I can match your speed and reflexes like this. You got the moves, there's no question about it uh...wait what was your name again?"

"I'm Algy Lierad, I told you," he hissed. He was suddenly starting to get a very bad feeling. It felt like it was getting darker than it already was in here. It also felt colder now.

"Sorry," she apologized. "I'm kinda bad at names. So, Algy, I'd say you won the first round. Now, it's time for round two." Her smile became a very menacingly angry frown and her blood-red eyes started to glow again. "Releasing Control Art Restriction Systems: Three, Two, and One." As she spoke those words she raised her hands and interlocked her fingers to form a rectangle with her right eye looking out at him from its center. The pentagrams on her gloves began to glow very brightly. As she continued speaking, her body, and clothes blended into a black silhouette of herself with a glowing red outline. The room got even darker, and the air was chilling right to the bone. "Approval of Situation A: recognized. Commencing the Cromwell Invocation. Ability restrictions lifted for limited use until the enemy has been rendered...silent."

A bead of sweat rolled down Algy's cheek as he took a step back and shuddered in fear. Suddenly Viola's outline started to distort and writhe as a shadow blacker than the depths of the ocean abyss spread over each and every wall around them, radiating out from Viola, or whatever this thing was. The shadows had a faint but sinister red aura emanating from them. He heard the distinct sound of tiny legs crawling over each other. Inside Viola's warped shape were what looked like...centipedes-an uncountable number of centipedes wriggling and crawling over each other. They almost didn't look real.

"I can't stand people who kill for fun like you," she hissed in a far more serious, more vicious tone of voice than she had used before. "You know that I'm called The Violet Demon. Now, I'm gonna show you why!" As soon as the words left her lips many eyes began to open across the wall, and on her body. They were large piercing red eyes that all fixed their gaze on Algy. Something monstrous began to grow out of the shadowy form standing before Algy. It sprouted from her shoulder, and grew out into a somewhat indistinct shape that was almost double her original height. Its head was identifiable by a pair of glowing red eyes, what looked like they could be small rounded ears, and a wide maw with one of the most terrifying sets of teeth imaginable. They were ivory-white in contrast to the blackness of the shadowy creature they were part of, very sharp, and yet very short and stout to crush rather than pierce. It warped and distorted as what looked like possibly a pair of arms with massive paws took shape on either side of it. It looked almost like a bear. No, more like a giant teddy bear, except much, much more menacing than even a real bear. It opened its mouth and let out a deep guttural growling roar that reverberated throughout the room and felt like it shook the very core of Algy's being. What was this thing, some kind of spawn of Hell? What was this creature called Viola he'd been sent to destroy? What kind of freak of nature was she?

"Holy fucking God!" He gasped in terror as he stared at it and its mistress. His legs trembled, his eyes widened, and as he came to the terrible realization that he was so outclassed that he might as well have been a single ant trying to fight a dinosaur, he screamed in horror as the fiendish shadow monster roared and lunged right at him. "OH MY-No! What the fuck?! Fuck this shit! I'm outta here!"

He tried to run, but he didn't even fully turn around to face the door before a gigantic paw with five very large curved claws struck him in the face with tremendous force and sent him flying like a rag doll, tearing gashes into his face. He crashed through the rotting wall to their left and bounced into another room of the house, slamming against a slightly more sturdy wall and landing on the dusty floor with a thud. He whimpered as he forced himself to his feet, blood and cold sweat dripping from his slashed up face. He fell on his injured leg as the writhing mass of centipedes, darkness, and eyes spread across this room as well. He was finished.

Then he saw it, a small glint of metal. It was the metal of his knife catching a glint of moonlight through a hole in the wall and it was laying right next to him. His confidence surged once more. Now he might be able to turn this around. The shadow creature came for him once more before he could even react and knocked him off to the side with a backhand slap. He smashed through wood and plaster into a room that look decidedly like a dining room. He tried to swing the knife as the primal shadow force bellowed and shot after him. Before he could summon the knife's power, before his swing even got close, a hand emerged from the creature's mouth. A hand with a black fingerless glove and in its grasp was the Jinshu Long. He stopped his swing out of surprise and confusion, and the hand pulled the trigger. With a loud bang, the gun fired what seemed like tiny white-hot fireballs. They moved at speeds such that to the naked eye they appeared as many jets of white or bright orange flames that hit Algy straight on and pushed him back against the wall and shattered the knife to pieces very nearly him as well. Some of his clothes caught fire and he began to shriek in pain and terror as he rolled around on the ground to try to put the fire out.

"Aggghhhh! Get away! Get away from me!" He shouted at the darkness. Suddenly, the bear-like monster was towering over him, and before he knew what was happening it slammed itself down on top of him. He felt bones crack, he felt intense pain as his the pressure started to crush him, and heard the wood of the floor splinter around him, but saw nothing until it slowly lifted off of his body. It then collapsed back into the blackness around it. He saw smoke rising from his charred clothes. His body had multiple burns and gunshot wounds, but it seemed the shadowy bear thing had snuffed out the flames when it smashed him. He tried to move, but his muscles had no strength in them and agony pulsed through his body every time he tried. He could do nothing but lie there, hoping against hope that she might actually let him live, or at least regenerate himself. Although, with this kind of damage that might take an hour. Even if she were willing to let him go, there was no way _they _would after this monumental failure.

"Just what are you?" He coughed.

"Who, me?" Asked a female voice. It sounded like Viola's but it was higher pitched now. "I'm Viola. You know that." Suddenly something else started to rise out of the churning shadows on the floor over him. It took a human shape, but it was much shorter than before. It was even shorter than him, in fact. It looked like a young girl surrounded by a faint red glow. This figure was covered in jet black wrappings or bandages of some on from her arms, across her chest, and everywhere except her neck and head, which made her very pale skin with those faint dark blood vessels just beneath it stand out that much more. On her hands were those same fingerless black gloves with the glowing pentagrams. Little bits of the bandages hung like ribbons off her arms and body. Over that she had on a tattered very dark tuscan red one piece dress with some dark smears and splotches on it. The skirt of the dress ran all the way to the floor, or more accurately, it was rising out of the floor. This entity had long and disheveled violet hair that ran all the way down her back. Her disorganized bangs completely covered the top half of her face, leaving only her small child nose and her mouth visible. Her lips parted, revealing her ivory white teeth and her distinctive pointed canines as she glared down at him. Suddenly all of her teeth became sharper, but not as long or pointy as her actual fangs. She was nothing if not utterly terrifying as she stood over him. Perhaps the most disturbing thing about her appearance to Algy, however was a large eye in the center of her body. It was surrounded by veins made of red light and the eye itself was glowing brightly. Her face was full of anger, albeit a controlled and directed anger.

"No," Algy wheezed. "No, you're a freak! Stay away from me! Oh God! Don't-"

"Do you still think killing innocent people for 'shits n' giggles' is fun?" She asked coldly. "You don't seem to be enjoying those 'shits n' giggles' anymore. Does that mean you're ready to get serious now? Come on and regenerate yourself, Algy. We're not done yet! Outside was just a warm up! Get a move on and summon your familiars already! Stand up and show me what you've got so I can dish it back! Those are only 'flesh wounds' for vamps like us, so hurry, heal yourself already and fight! Come on, what're you waiting for? Hurry!"

"Y-y-You MONSTER!" Algy shrieked.

Viola stopped dead in her tracks. Even the shadows all around them fell motionless. She looked shocked, even though her eyes were hidden by her bangs. What the hell was his deal? He was easily able to overpower her before, so what was the matter? He was certainly not powerful enough to defeat Alucard no matter what he did, but if he was so strong then he had to be a fully-fledged vampire like Alucard and herself, right? So, why didn't he call on his own familiars or speed up his healing? But then again, who would offer such a deplorable person blood willingly in the first place? In that moment, Viola realized she had made a terrible mistake. He was trash. _He really can't do it, can he? _She thought. _Oh no! If I'd known that...I only went so far because I thought he could take it_. Her chin dipped and her shoulders slumped forward a bit.

"I see," she said quietly with a hint of regret and disappointment in her voice. "I didn't mean to mess you up so badly. If I'd known you were so weak-"

"Weak?!" Algy breathed, calling on all his strength to even force the sound out of his mouth. "You're calling me weak?! You're a slave to Hellsing! You're just their pawn! Their fucking toady, and you always will-"

"CAN IT, kid!" She growled. "You think I'm a toady? You've got it backwards. You're the toad! But, me? I'm a viper." Suddenly the darkness came alive once more and Viola's left arm began to whirl and distort. Her fingers blended into a single shape as her arm turned into black shadows, and grew larger and extended downward. It wrapped around her body once as it grew into a massive long streamlined shape that stopped over Algy. Two large red eyes opened up on either side of the front of this new monster's head. Then numerous smaller ones appeared all over it as it opened its mouth ever so slightly, revealing a set of long slender white teeth that were extremely sharp and curve backwards. It also had a pair of fangs that were dripping with a strange substance that looked almost like very dark-colored blood. It let out an eerie, bone-chilling hiss as a fork tongue flickered in and out of its mouth. It slid forward, pulling its head back with the curvature of its shadowy form into an "S" position.

"It'll be all over very quick, toad," said Viola quietly. "You won't feel a thing. I promise." Algy didn't get a chance to even scream as the great shadow serpent struck at him like it was spring-loaded. The last thing he saw were its monstrous teeth and beyond them a darkness through which no light would ever possibly reach as the serpent's jaws closed around him and it swallowed him hole. He felt a split second of extreme pressure on his body, but no pain. After that, even the darkness faded into nothing.

Slowly the squirming shadows throughout the room began to recede back towards Viola. She drew them into her body and her dress. The giant shadow snake hissed and shrunk back into the shape of her arm. The giant eye on her body vanished and she grew taller. Her body and clothes soon changed back into those of her teenage form. The pentagrams on her gloves stopped glowing, indicating that the restraints on her power had been put back into place. She looked down at the smashed in floor where Algy had been as she drew the last bits of his blood from around the house into her body.

"So in the end, you weren't anything special," she said solemnly. She regretted being so brutal against such an outclassed enemy, but either way he had to die. At least his death was quick and painless after the horrendous torment he'd been through. "Good riddance to you, Algernon Lierad. What a dirtbag." Then she turned towards the door. She started to leave, but then she felt something off with her body. More specifically, she felt like there was something in her that shouldn't be there. Something small, and...metallic? She raised her palm and the foreign object began to rise out of her skin and into her hand.

"Hello, what's this thing?" she asked to no one in particular. It was a tiny, greenish rectangular metal object with all kinds of small circuitry and other things on its surface. It kind of reminded her of a computer chip of some kind. Where'd it come from though? Algy must have been carrying it for some reason. She decided to slip inside her pants pocket. It was probably nothing, but it seemed that there was more to this than a simple vampire incursion so she decided to hang on to it just in case. Useful clues came in all kinds of forms after all. Then she turned her attention back to the business at hand.

"Hm, so there were three vampires the whole time. Seems like Murray already killed one since I can't sense it. There's still one more though. I'd better go stop it before it kills anyone else." She once more transformed into a screaming swarm of bats and flew off into the night after the last of the targets...


	6. Chapter V-The Unexpected Visitor

Chapter V - The Unexpected Visitor

Ellen was lying on the forest green couch in the living room with her feet dangling over one of the arms. She had her nose stuck in The Lord of the Rings. Somehow, out of everything she'd read in four centuries, that book had escaped her until recently. Even stranger was the fact that The Hobbit had not. She wasn't even aware that Tolkien had written other books. Luckily, some of Viola's friends had read all of them by this point, and when they found out that she hadn't they made damn sure that error in judgement on her part was corrected. Oh boy, had she been missing out! _Markus said I can't watch the movies until I read the books, _Ellen laughed mentally as she flipped the page. _Eh, I could live a thousand years and still not understand how some people come up with these little nuances of theirs. I wouldn't watch them without reading the books first anyway. What does he think I am, some kind of a savage?_ She flipped the page and continued onwards with the adventure. For some reason, she just didn't have the same attention span that she used to when it came to reading. She could only get so far into it before she had to take a break. There had been a time when she could read entire volumes in a day. Now there were too many other distractions and other aspects in her life that got in the way. However, she was intent on finishing the chapter she was currently reading.

She couldn't wait to see whether Sam would be able to actually beat Shelob with only a sword! _That better be one HELL of a sword__,_ she thought. _I know it glows when orcs are around, Sam, but yeah...a__ spider that size would have armor tough enough to take a shot at point-blank range from any of father's guns without getting a scratch on it. I should know...I had to deal with a real-life giant spider without a sword, or anything at all._ In a fair fight, no mammal would have a chance against a spider that size. Luckily, she knew ways to get past it without fighting it. Even so, she still shuddered a bit when she thought of reading that note on the wall of her house that said: THE SPIDER HAS POOR EYES, HE CAN'T EVEN TELL COLORS APART. The thought that crossed her mind when she read that was: _Oh dear. Well, I'm properly screwed right now__._ Her fondness for spiders had ended that day, in fact so had her fascination with bugs in general. Now she much preferred the company of warm, fuzzy, and cute mammals, unless they were black cats.

She continued to flip through the pages as she read, admiring Sam's courage in the face of a genuine killing machine. He was a moron for risking himself to save Frodo, but she couldn't say he was lacking in the balls department though. She had no doubt he'd win despite the odds, after all he was one of the virtuous characters of the story. In fantasies like that, such characters always won in the end.

She kept getting more and more engaged, until a very obnoxious noise snapped her out of her reverie. It was that fucking doorbell. Oh, how she hated that noise! It seemed like one of those innovations that sounded good on paper, but was far less useful in reality, especially for a house this small. Why not just knock on the door? It buzzed again with a wavering: ANNNNNKKKKKK! ANNNNNKKKKKK! She rested the book on her stomach and frowned. At least she had been able to train Toby not to run to the door and bark anymore so there was only one annoying noise to deal with. He was probably sound asleep in father's room. She didn't feel like answering the door right now. Besides, there was that warning the police had put out over the local news an hour ago. It advised people not to leave their homes, but she didn't remember why because she wasn't listening when it was on. Should she even answer it with that in mind? She decided to ignore it either until the person went away, or until her father told her otherwise. It buzzed again, now coupled with the sound of a fist loudly knocking against the door. No way she would get back to her book with that racket. They hit the doorbell again and knocked even louder. No way this jackass was leaving until someone answered. _Hm, _she thought with a slight smirk. _I think I know a way out of this, hehehe! _

She hopped up from her spot on the couch and quietly slipped out of living room and went down the hall. She entered the first door on the right, the bathroom. She closed the door behind her, making as little sound as possible. Then the doorbell rang again.

"Vi!" Came the muffled voice of her father. "Would you get that?"

"I'm in the bathroom, Daddy!" Ellen shouted back.

"Never mind then, I'm on my way."

"Wait. Should we even answer it? I thought the cops said we should stay inside!"

"Yeah, but it might be that new gun sight I ordered," he said as he walked past the bathroom. "It was supposed to come today. I have to sign for it."

"Ah," Ellen replied. _He actually ordered that? Sheesh, boys and their toys_. _It's a bit late for anyone to still be delivering packages though, isn't it? Now that I think about it, would they even still be aloud to deliver anything right now because of the thing with the cops?_

Ellen sat down on the covered toilet, intent on carrying on with her reading, only to realize she had set her book down on the couch when she got up and had left it there._  
_

"Oh, curses!" she grumbled quietly to herself. "I would leave the book on the couch. Yep, y' done goofed, Ellen."

Luckily, she did have something else that could be of use in here. She opened one of the drawers under the counter-top pulled out an eight inch long black-handled switchblade, a weapon that Viola's grandfather had used in World War II. He had given it to her father, but he gave it to her for self-defense if she was home alone. She kept normally kept this weapon in her room but she brought it into the bathroom with intent to polish it a couple days ago and just hadn't gotten around to it yet. the knife she used on Viola had nothing on this thing. It was still very sharp and highly effective, but it needed a tune-up like everything else from time-to-time. She made sure the safety catch was in place and slipped it through one of the belt loops on her pants but out of sight behind her back and pulled her shirt down over it. Perhaps some might call her paranoid for that even in this instance, but years of attempts on her life as a witch made her cautious on principle now that she no longer had the immortality or the magic to protect herself. There was almost zero chance she'd even be tempted to reach for her knife, she knew that, but it gave her peace-of-mind simply to know that it was there in case she did have need of it. Ellen closed the drawer and decided to go grab her book.

She opened the door and stepped out just in time to overhear her father say the words: "What do you want with her?" Unfortunately, the person who he was talking to must have noticed her step out of the bathroom.

"Hey, honey!" Said a soothingly sweet and charming woman with dark red-hair, small sunglasses and a half-finished cigarette in her hand as she peered around the muscular form of the father. She smiled without exposing her teeth when Ellen looked her way and then sweetly asked: "Are you Viola?"

"Yes, I am," Ellen answered back in a welcoming tone. It wasn't what she wanted to do, however it would have been Viola's natural response. "Is there something I can do for you, miss?"

"Hang on a second," said her father sternly, putting himself in between his "daughter" and this stranger. "Who are you, and what do you want with Viola?"

"I'm afraid that's none of your concern, my good sir!" She answered back. Before he could open his mouth to respond, her hand clasped around his throat and she hoisted him off the ground with one arm like he was as light as a feather. "Now, get outta my way!" She then lightly tossed him off to the side, sending him flying a couple meters before he crashed through a nearby window and landed outside with a loud thud.

Ellen took a minute to register what had just happened and stood there with her jaw practically hitting the floor in astonishment and confusion. There was no way a woman of her size and build should have been able to lift up a beefy man like her father, much less with one hand. That didn't even cover the fact that she then threw him right out a window a fair distance away without even thinking about it. _What the hell? What just-? How did she do that? She's some kind of freak or something! No normal person's that strong. Not even close! Who, or dare I ask_ **_what_**_ is she and what does she want with Viola?_ Her first instinct was to run for it, go to her room, grab her phone, get out of the house, and call the cops. But, she dared not turn her back to this woman. If she was caught with her back turned, she'd never get loose. She had another alternative, but it was almost as risky.

"Oh my God!" Ellen screamed. "Daddy!"

"Oh, don't worry about him, dear," the woman said in a silvery voice as she took a step towards Ellen. "A few stitches and a little pick-me-up to mend his broken ego and I'm sure he'll be fine."

Ellen wanted to step backwards, but she stood her ground. She was in a fairly open space, and the more room she had to maneuver, the better her chances of escape. "Wh-what do you want from me?" She asked weakly, mimicking the shaky voice of someone in an uncontrolled state of terror. She was afraid, but she was a master of keeping a clear head in any situation. Besides, she'd seen and done plenty of things far scarier than this woman. Although, admittedly she had never encountered someone with this kind of raw physical power. It was like something right out of a comic book.

"What I want from you, is you," she replied, now coming towards her much more quickly. "I don't know why they want you and I don't really care. Even if I knew, I'm a trained professional so I wouldn't say in a place like this. All you need to know is that you're very, very important to the people I work for and they sent me to bring you back to them. Now, no doubt you've noticed that I'm a lot stronger than I look by this point, so let's keep this simple since I'm on a bit of tight schedule. I'm supposed to keep you safe and sound 'till I get you where we need to go, but there are some other people coming after you also. This place isn't safe anymore, so you're gonna come with me. Now. We clear?"

"Um, y-yes," Ellen nodded, placing both hands slowly behind her back.

"Then let's go," she said quickly as she grabbed Ellen by the shoulder and began to lead her to the door.

Who did this woman think she was fooling? A trick like that might have worked on Viola, although probably not since injuring her father would have destroyed any willingness to trust or even listen the person. She had a feeling these were the people the Black Cat had warned her about. They had been watching her and now for whatever reason they decided to kidnap her. She had no doubt they knew something about that day five years ago. There was no reason she could think of to keep tabs on her other than that. How much they knew, she could not yet say. It didn't matter, as she had no intention of going with this redhead at all. _You might be super strong, _Ellen thought. _But, I've got the element of surprise and I feel like you know just a bit too much for my health, so we'll just call your untimely demise...self-defense_. She carefully manipulated the knife out of her belt loop and flicked off the safety catch, allowing the knife blade to swing out. Now she just needed to pick her moment. The neck was the weak point no matter the opponent's strength, and it was within Ellen's reach.

Ellen shifted her knife into her free arm and when they got close to the door, she decided that the time had come. She flipped the knife around in her hand, wrapped her arm around the woman's and in one swift motion struck out at her and plunged the knife into the side of her neck. The redhead's body shuddered and she let out a sickening moaning croak as she gurgled crimson bubbles and blood poured over the knife blade. Ellen didn't even wait to see the result, she knew she had severed the jugular and pierced the windpipe, that woman would be dead in a few minutes at the very latest. She wrenched the knifed out of her and just ran out the door without a second thought. She could borrow someone else's phone, but she was not running back past that freak of nature while there was any chance of her being alive and able to strike back. She'd send the cops and an ambulance or something over to deal with the mess and get help for her father. She headed for the garage, which thankfully was still open and grabbed her bike since her father had the keys to the truck. She kicked in the stand and hopped on, pedaling like a madman right past a rather bewildered and distraught Toby. He had come running out when he heard all the commotion.

"Toby, stay!" She shouted back at him when she saw him running after her. He immediately slowed and then stopped at her command, but then started to walk in circles and was still barking at her. She had trained him very well indeed. She didn't need her powers to know that he wanted to come with her, but he would only slow her down. He would be more useful staying by father's side.

She leaned forward on the bike and put all her leg strength into peddling. She needed to get to a neighbor's house and quickly. Her home's relative isolation from most of the nearby residents in this area was not helping any. As fast as she was going, she felt like it just wasn't quick enough. She was almost to the intersection where the dirt road met the pave one when without warning, her bike suddenly flipped upwards from the back wheel into the air, launching her straight into the dusty road with a grunt. She skidded forward a bit, scuffing her face and the bottoms of her arms against the hard Earth. The bike landed about a meter in front of her on its side, with the pedals still turning slightly._  
_

"You slippery blonde bitch," growled a sultry feminine voice. A chill went down said blonde's spine at the eerie cadence it carried. Ellen felt a hand grab the back of her head and yank her straight off the ground. She looked back over her shoulder, ignoring the stinging pain from the harsh scratches on her cheeks and arms as she was slowly turned around to meet the gaze of her assailant.

_What? How? _Ellen asked herself in disbelief and fear. It was the same redhead woman from before. She was looking pretty spry for someone who just had a knife stuck through their neck not even two minutes ago. In fact, Ellen couldn't see any sign of an injury on her neck now except some blood on her clothes. It was like it had never happened. _Even witches can't heal this fast, and no human could be anywhere near this strong or quick. What the fuck is she?_ She got her answer when she saw the woman's eyes flash red behind her glasses-when she saw the woman's enraged grimaced, with her long, pointed canines on full display. _Is she a...no way! That's not-but they're a myth. I've been around centuries and not once did one ever come to my house. _There was no mistaking it though. She fit all the descriptions. The pale skin, the eyes, and the fangs. Not to mention she definitely had inhuman powers. No knife would be able to kill her if the legends were true. She was the genuine article. A real Nosferatu._  
_

"You're a...vampire?" Ellen asked. Now she had cause to be truly frightened. In this body, for all the constant work she did to keep it in peek condition, she was totally powerless against an immortal monster like this one. The hit with the knife had been a matter of luck and surprise, nothing more. She was a baby gazelle staring into the eyes of an experienced lioness about to go for the throat. Her heart was pounding furiously in her chest. Her eyes were completely dilated in fear. _  
_

"You're pretty clever," the woman snapped back. "You're also pretty damn lucky my boss wants you alive and healthy! If it were up to me, you'd be wearing those perky tits of yours as earrings by the time I got done with you!" She threw Ellen to the ground and planted her foot firmly on the teen's stomach and pressed down, slowly increasing the pressure. "You're coming with me whether you want to or not, and the next time you try any more bullshit with me, my sweet..." She stopped as all of her teeth sharpened and she pressed down on one of her leather bracers causing a blade to spring out up against Ellen's throat. "The next time, I might just be tempted to let my hand slip a little bit." She pressed with the knife harder until the blade ever so slightly broke the skin and a line of crimson ran over the blade. Ellen winced from the discomfort, though she had endured far worse. The vampire pulled blade back and ran her tongue slowly over the blade to lick every last tantalizing drop of blood on its edge. "Mmm," she purred. "Your blood smells and tastes as delicious as you look. I might not be able to resist taking a little nibble next time, either. Just so you know, if I bit you, you wouldn't turn into a vampire. You'd become a ghoul, a rotting carcass walking with no mind of your own. My slave forever. You want that?"

Ellen shook her head without saying a word. That was an interesting bit of information. That was something she'd never read or heard about in vampire lore. However, it was also an empty threat. If the people this creature served wanted her alive, there was no way she'd do that. Although, that depended on how crazy she was. Either way, she had no way to kill this vampire or outrun it. She was completely at her mercy.

"Good, I'm glad we understand each other," She smiled as all of her sharpened teeth except her actual fangs returned to their normal shapes and sizes. "Now, from here on, you're not going to move unless I say so, and you're not going to talk unless I ask you a question, in which case, you better fucking answer me and quickly. Got that?" Ellen nodded quickly, even in her fear she refused to scream or cry, she had endured worse than this because of the illness she had been born with in her original body. She couldn't resist, but it would take far more than this to break her spirit.

The woman retracted the blade and took her foot off Ellen's body before hoisting her up and tossing her over her shoulder, resting one arm over her back to hold the girl in place. Suddenly the world seemed to blur together as a tremendous gust of air flew past them. No, it wasn't air movement, but rather them moving at very high speed and displacing the air around them. The blonde stopped contemplating methods of escape within a couple of seconds. There were none that ended well for her with this mortal vessel. There were rare occasions that Ellen wished she still had her magic since she left the forest that fateful day, but never more so than right now. She remembered that the Black Cat had offered to make her a witch again. If she had accepted, then this vampiric bitch would've been the one trembling on the ground a moment ago...maybe. _No, never again_, she thought, hating that the idea entered her mind even in her situation. The sacrifice she would have to make for that would amount to giving up everything she had spent centuries trying to achieve. She wasn't willing to sell her soul, not even for a limited period of time. Not even if the Black Cat really could grant anything she wanted. She refused to allow herself to be tempted again.

The vampire carried her precious cargo onward into town, staying away from main roads and using alleys and backyards to stay hidden. Even with her super speed, this was a much slower way to get out of the area, but it was perhaps the safer one. Ellen began to wonder if maybe the vampire hadn't been lying and there were really were other people interested in her. If so, then this was a good way to keep out of sight, but it also suggested that this woman had reason to fear the other party. After seeing what a vampire could do without even trying, Ellen nearly shuddered. Anyone or anything that could make an immortal vampire this cautious was not to be trifled with. This was starting to look far bigger than she thought. It had taken on an entirely new dimension unto itself now that there were supernatural forces involved. _If I get out of this jam, I'm gonna need some more answers to better protect_ myself, contemplated the former witch._ Ugh! I hate to admit it, but it looks like I'm gonna need cat-boy's help after all. At least enough to know where to start looking for the answers I need. If, I get out of this.__  
_

"Good, we're almost outta here," the vampire mumbled to no one in particular, snapping Ellen out of her train-of-thought. She was correct, they were fast approaching the edge of town. However, she suddenly also seemed increasingly agitated. "Where is that little snot and my boyfriend! Dammit! I don't sense either them now. Up until a moment ago I could feel Algy's presence. Did he go and get himself killed already? Now that I think about, I haven't been able to sense Lance for a while though. Wait, don't tell me they-they killed my Lance too! YOU BASTARDS! I'll make them pay a hundred times for that, baby! Once I get this bitch to the boss I'll come back and kill em' all and burn that mansion of theirs in the woods to the fucking ground! I'll burn them, the forest, and this whole fucking backwater town off the map!" Her voice sounded shaky, like it was full of immense rage and sadness. Was she crying?

_What on Earth is she screaming about? _Ellen asked herself. _Who are Lance and Algy? More vampires? Fucking fantastic! So I was right. Someone else is running around killing these vampires who came to Nornville to kidnap me? And I'm being taken away from my home by this bitch who's obviously afraid of the other guys coming after her and she lost her teammates? Fuck me! There are probably actual screws that are not as screwed as I am right now. How the hell did I get caught up in this madness?_

Suddenly the redheaded vampire stopped sobbing and froze in her tracks. "Oh no!" She breathed as she turned her head towards the full moon. Now it was her turn to experience fear. Her eyes widened and she began to look around frantically. This added to Ellen's distress as she looked at the moon, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. What was she looking at? "Gotta move now!" She exclaimed wearily as she started to run again. She didn't get far before she stopped again without warning, her momentum nearly flinging Ellen out of her grip. The blonde had to hold back her urge to puke. Somehow she didn't think that would help her situation much. The woman's dress looked quite expensive.

Ellen heard an odd sound as the vampire started to try to look for someplace else to go. It sounded like a very high-pitched squeak. It was very faint, but it was constant and steadily growing louder. _It sounds like a bat, _Ellen thought. Then she remembered something from when she read Bram Stoker's Dracula: vampires could turn into bats, among other things. That couldn't be coincidence. _Now what? Don't tell me there's another one! __Figures, it's an undead bargain bin sale!_ Why are all these fucking vampires having a pissing contest over who gets to kidnap me and/or suck my blood?

Now she was hearing many bats nearby, but their cries were coming from every direction. She looked up with dread, and saw that indeed there were a great many little black bats gathering above and around them. They were spiraling all around faster and faster and darting in closer. Their screams were sounding more and more excited. She had no clue what was about to happen, but she knew that in all likelihood, it would end very badly for one or both of them. All of the sudden the redhead woman let out a frantic cry of fear and the next thing Ellen knew, she was sailing through the air at high speed some distance. It all came to a sudden halt when she hit the pavement of a nearby road where she hit her right shoulder and her head against the ground.

Ellen saw stars dancing in her vision and heard a dull ringing in her ears. She could also hear faint noises that sounded like some kind of a struggle nearby. Her body was slow and not readily responsive to her commands, her shoulder ached, and she was dizzy but she had to try to escape. Anywhere but here would do. In a daze she managed to sluggishly and shakily rise to her feet, trying to shake off her dizzy trance. She put all of her concentration into commanding her legs to move forward, but her sense of direction and balance were so off that she only managed to stagger aimlessly in circles. Her legs did carry her just far enough to find a tree to lean her uninjured shoulder against, but as soon as she did, she didn't want to leave. _I have to get out of here, but I can't right now,_ she thought as a wave of sudden and powerful drowsiness washed over her spinning head. _I need to rest my head first, and get myself together. Then I can leave_...

"Just for a minute," she whispered as she stood listlessly against the tree. Logic and instinct told her to keep trying to run for it, but the urge to try and rest was too powerful. Besides, she couldn't get far in her current state. She could still here noises behind her, and they were growing louder as the buzzing in her ears faded away. They sounded like gunfire-sporadic and loud, but unmistakable even in her condition. Instantly she thought of her father, being that he was the person she associated most with that sound. Except that this didn't sound like any of his guns. Over time she had learned that each of his different weapons had a slightly different and distinctive sound when fired. It was louder and deeper, indicating that it had significantly more firepower. This sounded more like one of the guns from a Call of Duty game or something-a military grade weapon. Soon the gun stopped firing. She willed herself to turn around and looked back, her clouded mind failing to see the danger and stupidity in that. She saw two blurry forms collide about twelve or thirteen meters ahead of her in mid-air before rocketing off to the left into a small grove of trees by a creek that ran through this area. One of them was much stronger than the other. There were houses nearby in the opposite direction, but to Ellen they might as well have been a million miles away. Her body felt too heavy to move at the moment, although the fuzziness in her head was starting to dissipate somewhat.

She could still see movement through the trees, one of the two monsters was coming towards her at a regular human walking speed. She felt like running again, except that she wasn't sure that she could and it would do her no good anyway. Then a strange dark fog appeared out of the trees and blocked the blurred figure's path and began to drive it back towards the trees. Suddenly, a different female voice called on the wind: "Run you fool!"

The command jolted Ellen and she became completely aware of herself and her surroundings again. Ellen shook her head once more as she snapped out of her trance-like state. She felt the dull throb in her shoulder again, and the sting from the scrapes on her arms and cheeks. Her muscles felt strong again, like they would move again. Without wasting another second she turned back and fled down the road. Her legs were still a bit weak but at least she could use them now. She made it some distance before she heard the redhead let out a horrified scream before one final gunshot reverberated through the area. She ignored it and kept running. She had to make it home, and it wasn't terribly far from where she was. A good twenty-five minutes' walk from where she was right now and she'd be home. It was less if she ran the whole way. Then again, nothing was terribly far from anything else in Nornville. She forgot about her original plan to get help when she left her house in the first place. She just wanted to get home, and that singular goal in her fear-ridden mind drove her legs forward. She kept running and running past the houses, ignoring the breeze as it whipped through her disheveled golden hair. None of it mattered.

As she ran onward, she noticed some people coming out of their homes, no doubt in response to the noises of the fight back there. Now that it had been quiet for a couple minutes, their natural curiosity was overriding their fear. Some of them saw her run by and called after her, but she ignored them and kept going until her legs refused to carry her any further. She had to stop and catch her breath. Sweat dripped from her forehead, and she was panting fiercely. She looked around, trying to find a bench someplace. She didn't see anything she could use, but she heard the voice of a boy she knew well accompanied by his almost obscenely loud footsteps coming up behind her.

"Viola!" He called as he caught up with her. "Hey, Vi, what's the matter? Are you okay?"

"Gabe..." started Ellen as she looked up into his sparkling blue eyes, trying to catch her breath. She said it in a very distraught tone because that was how Viola would've spoken in this situation. Gabriel and Viola would've been eighteen had she lived. Viola's memories revealed that he and Viola had been very close friends since they were both five years old. So far as he was concerned, they still were. He was definitely one of the most attractive boys in his age-group at school with a very well-toned physique. At the moment, that did not appear to be the case, however. His short light brown hair was in a total cow-lick and he was wearing a wrinkled white v-neck shirt with some stains on it from what she guessed was either red or meat pasta sauce. He also had on a pair of black basketball shorts and was barefoot.

"Hey, you alright?" He asked once she acknowledged him. _What the fuck do you think? _Ellen asked mentally. He was sweet and attentive, far more so to her than anyone else, which made him quite handy at times. But, like some people he could be a bit thickheaded and would ask obvious and annoying questions. He could see clearly that she was not alright, so why bother asking? Yet another habit of the populace that she just did not understand and found irritating. He must have finally registered or noticed the scrapes on her body because he then said: "Geez! What happened to you?"

"I, uh...I fell off my bike on the way over here," she said while trying to think up a cover story. "I'm fine, though. Really, Gabe. I'm okay." She needed to draw his attention away from why she was here. She just wanted to get home, see to father, and then try to figure out what was going on around here. However, she had no idea how bad her Dad's wounds were, and then she got an idea. Knowing Gabe, he would probably offer to help, and she realized that she did have need of his services.

"You sure?" Gabe asked. "Those scrapes look pretty bad."

"I'm fine," Ellen repeated. "I promise, they're just cuts. But, Gabe listen to me!" She stated frantically as she grabbed his wrist rather harshly. "My Dad's hurt! I came because I think he might need to go to a hospital and-"

"Whoa! Hold up a sec. Your Dad's hurt? What happened? Where is he?"

She could tell he was worried for her. Her plan was working. That blockheaded Viola! She had some idea that he fancied her, but not once did she consider the tool she had at her disposal because of it. Whether or not she returned those feelings was irrelevant, this was common sense for pete's sake! There was no harm in using feminine charm to get a boy to do some mundane task to make one's life easier. In this case, though, she actually needed his help and the task was far from mundane. She looked into his eyes, with her emerald orbs full of shock and worry, and replied: "He-he's at my house! He must've had some kind of accident and fell through a window. I think he needs to go to a hospital, just in case. I don't know what to do! I don't know if I can move him to the truck myself, he might be hurt too badly. Oh God, Gabe I need help!" She started to lower her head and make sobbing noises. She was a master of shedding fake tears when the situation required it.

"Calm down, Vi," he said in a concerned but soothing voice. He didn't entirely know what to do with this situation but he was trying his best. "Take it easy It's gonna be fine. I'm sure he's okay. I'll call an ambulance and then drive you back to your place, is that okay?"

"Yes, please do! Oh, thank you, Gabe!" She threw her arms around him and pulled him into a tight embrace for a moment. He returned the hug and patted her lightly on the head. She realized that she had forgotten about the fact that she could've called an ambulance in her story, but it didn't seem to matter to him. What he saw was a traumatized kind girl that cared for her father deeply. She overreacted when he got hurt and forgot a couple of things in her fear, it was perfectly understandable. That was precisely what she wanted him to see: a desperate Viola in need of his help.

"Hey now, what're friends for?" He asked rhetorically as she broke the hug.

_Friends indeed! _Ellen chuckled mentally. _Give me a break! You want to be more than just friends and you know it._ She knew him well enough to know that he didn't mean anything by that statement. Some girls might have been offended or put-off by a comment like that, but not her. She had great confidence in herself and her ability to read people for the most part.

"Here, imma go grab my phone, tell my folks what's going on, and call that ambulance. Come on inside, Vi. You want anything? A glass of water or something?"

"No, I'm fine," she replied with a little smile. "I just want to make sure Daddy's okay before anything else. I'm already causing you enough trouble as it is."

"Don't worry about it," he said cooly as he led her inside. "You're the one having the emergency with your and you're worried about it being inconvenient for me? That's a pretty Viola-ish thing to do. But, no. It's not problem at all. If you need anything, let me know."

"Thank you, Gabe," she said, smiling a little brighter this time as they sat down on a very dark brown leather couch in front of a wall mounted plasma screen television. "It means a lot. You have no idea." She truly did appreciate how much he cared, and that he was willing to take time to help her in a jam. Normally he put on the macho-male attitude, but revealed a very different side of himself in her presence even around his male friends. Even then, he still had an aura of strength about him that made her feel like she could rely on him and trust him.

"I'll be back in a sec, I'll go make that call," he said.

Ellen almost asked him to let her do it, but quite frankly it didn't make terribly much difference that she could see and it would give her some time alone with her thoughts. He smiled down at her and hopped up from the couch and ran off down a hallway to the left and up a flight of stairs.

Ellen reviewed everything that had happened to her in the last ten or fifteen minutes, trying to make some sense out of it. Tonight she had a very close encounter with a supernatural creature that she had never seen outside of a book or the media until now. She believed that vampires were a myth, possibly inspired in part by witches like herself. After all, her original body did not physically age inside her house, and she had used her roses to syphon blood from her victims and drink it. She never asked the Black Cat about them, she didn't consider it important until tonight. She had been powerless against the abilities of the undead bloodsucking woman that tried to kidnap her. It was like the first time she had smelled the scent in that Cute Little Bottle of hers. When the woman had her pinned to the earth with her foot, her wrist blade was like Death's curved scythe at her throat. If she were still a witch, it would have been a different story, but she was just a simple human. She thought that this would be the last night she would ever see Nornville, and her life that she worked so hard to achieve ever again. Which, begged the question: who or what had saved her? There was no doubt the swarm of bats was in fact a shape-shifted vampire, but why save her? At first, she thought they were fighting over who got to capture or eat her, but that voice she heard blew that idea out of the water. There was something about it...it sounded strangely familiar, but she was certain she'd never heard that specific voice before in her life. Perhaps it reminded her of someone else's because it sounded a lot like theirs. She couldn't place it right now. At the moment, it didn't really matter to her. She was glad she had escaped, for now. _I hope I'm wrong, _she thought with a twinge of fear and a slight shudder. _But I have a feeling this isn't over_. The Black Cat had told her something big was coming. A vampire or group of vampires was certainly very terrifying, but she didn't think it would be enough to make that demonic asshole try to tempt her with magic. She would need to take some steps to try to protect herself from future attacks. Before she could come up with effective ways to do this, though, she heard Gabe coming back down the hall.

"Vi," he said quickly. "They're on their way. We should get going, too. I think we should be there before they are." He already had on his shoes.

"'Kay," Ellen nodded, slowly rising. He was more correct than he thought. Toby probably wouldn't take kindly to people he didn't recognize going near her Dad while she was away and he was injured. "I'm ready."

She followed him to the door and to the left where his red sudan was parked in the driveway. It looked like it was in serious need of a wash, not unlike its owner at the moment. One could probably write their name or the words "WASH ME" on the back if they wanted to. His parents normally kept their car in the garage, and being that it was only a one car garage this was the best way since there was rarely any street parking. She slowly hopped into the passenger's seat as he took his spot and started the car. He looked over at her and put his hand on her shoulder and said: "Vi, I'm sure he'll be fine. He's one of the toughest people I know."

"I know, but I should have called the ambulance right then and there! God, I'm so stupid! I heard him yell and then the window broke and I...I just freaked out and ran out of the house. I thought it was a burglar or something."

"Hey, you were scared, don't beat yourself up for not thinking rationally. It happens. Just be thankful it actually wasn't someone trying to break in."

"Yeah," she said slowly and shakily as she put her seatbelt on. "I know. But I just feel like I should've done more. Anything that happens to him is my fault. I worry about him. He's the only family I have left."

"I know," he said as he began to back the car out. "But, this isn't like that. What happened to your Mom-oh, shit. I didn't mean to, oh wow I'm such an idiot."

"No, no, it's fine," Ellen replied quietly as she looked down. That hit a nerve alright, but not in the way he thought. To her, the word "mother" was not one she associated with joy and happiness. She did not think of Viola's kind and loving mother, although the pain of her loss was in her memories, she thought of her own. The woman who had taken care of her in her first seven years of life, but did not see her as anything more than an inconvenience or a doll. It made her blood boil with hatred and her heart heavy with the darkest form of sadness to think of her. She could feel tears beginning to well up, and she tried to steel herself against her despair. Images of her final night as a human in her original body flashed in her mind.

"Get along with father, won't you?" She had said.

"Be well, Ellen," she had said.

"Mother," Ellen had replied in an emotionless voice.

She remembered her mother gazing down at her with a face full of affection, but it was all false. She had no place for the doll that was Ellen in her life anymore. Nor did she have any need of her husband, who cared for her more than anything else in the world. That same man who wouldn't even so much as look at his own daughter but gave his all for mother. Ellen once cared for her mother, and the black hole she felt at the realization that she meant to abandon her and father was too much. She would never forgive or accept such betrayal. She raised the crafting knife and aimed it at her own mother's neck...

"Viola!" Gabe said loudly, breaking the image and temporarily, the emotion that came with it. By now they had backed out of the driveway completely and were turning to head down the street.

"Oh, s-sorry," Ellen mumbled. "I was just...thinking about my Mom."

"I'm sorry I brought it up," said Gabe.

"Don't be," she said, smiling. "It's fine. I'm over it. Dad isn't though. I think in his heart he forgave himself and the doctors, but he just couldn't forget it. Me, I'm the opposite. I'll never forgive myself. But, sometimes I can forget." Those words were false entirely. Maybe Viola might have felt that way about the death of her mother, but Ellen had long ago forgiven herself for the death of her own mother. It was her mother who could not be forgiven.

He smiled at her as he put the car into drive. She smiled back and then gazed out the window and thought she saw something on the rooftop of Gabe's house. It looked like the silhouette of a person staring down at her. She could tell they were looking directly at one another for just a fraction of a second. Then Ellen blinked and the figure was gone. That is, if it was ever truly there in the first place...

Meanwhile, in a far away an unknown location, a rather pudgy man sat in a wide leather chair in the middle of a very dimly lit room. His hands were clasped under his chin and he had a most despicable smirk across his face as he stared at a large screen on the wall before him. There were two other people on either side of him also obscured from view by shadows and a third smaller shape laying on the floor in front of him. The screen had just gone from whatever it was showing them to static and snow. The man in the chair grabbed a remote and clicked off the screen.

"This is very interesting indeed," he stated with a very thick German accent. His voice had a most vile and obnoxious tone, yet it was also full of energy and enthusiasm at the same time. In a way, that made him sound even worse. Each word rolled off his tongue in such a disgustingly sinister cadence, but also ever so classy and suave. "It seems that both pieces to this puzzle are in Nornville, just like we planned. Both are in one place, and things are starting to come together. Hellsing has their first clue, but I suspect it will take a while before they realize it."

"I'm sorry the three specimens weren't able to complete the mission, Major," said the shorter of the two people standing beside him.

"Not to worry, my Doctor," replied the man in the chair. "I never expected any of them to succeed. They had two jobs, both of which they have performed perfectly. The first was to get both the witch and the girl in the same place. The second, was to serve as messengers, herr Doctor. And the message, has been received." He clicked the remote again, and the giant screen flicked on. This time it depicted a blue background with white lines drawn over it in the shape of a flat rectangular object. They were heavily enlarged schematics of a strange computer chip. Or more accurately, a microchip.


End file.
